Yes, and repeated over-torquing, at say 150 ft lbs or more, will have long term effects on the longevity of the studs. It can also cause warping of the rotor.
As someone that worked for a huge well known tire and repair shopā¦
Tester make a VERY valid point, it is wayyy to much of a legal liability to leave the lug nuts loose, pull the vehicle out of the shop for a customer to hand torque their own wheels, if the wheel comes off and kills somebody that shop and the technician that left the wheels loose could/will be named in the lawsuit, and both could loose everythingā¦
The company I retired from had to have and show double sign offs as well as hand written torque spec on paper work saying that the wheels were hand torqued by one tech and then retorqued/checked by another staff memberā¦
Also our torque wrenches were swapped out every 6 months to be re-calibrated/certifiedā¦ They were all Snap-on alsoā¦ the mechanics are not even allowed to use their own torque wrenches, even if they are the same as the company uses, to torque the wheels withā¦
So nothing to do with attitude, but it is a safety and legal thingā¦
Now the proper way would be to ask the shop if you can watch the wheels being installed (from a safe distance)ā¦
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And to speak up when a 150 ft lb limiter is used on lug nuts that the car maker specified 76 or 80 or such ft lb of torque on?
If I owned a shop I would not allow a car to leave the rack without fully-tightened lugnuts.
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I like that.
Problem is, time is money nowadays, many garages/ service bays are short staffed, and through-put is often the priority.
Hence, informed and knowledgeable customers such as I must make up that difference. No offense intended.
When it comes to service and repair of cars, I am the expert, not the customer. Every court would agree. If I let you torque your own wheels in the parking lot and you later lose a wheel, a judge or court would find me liable over the layman. No offense intended.
I wouldnāt have an attitude when I calmly would say āIām sorry Mr. TireWhisperer, I donāt think weāre the right shop for you. Try ABC Garage down the street.ā
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When I bought my Camaro I had a 100 ft-lb torque wrench. The Camaro spec is 140, so I bought a new one that went up to 150. My wife bought a Ford Edge and the spec on her wheels are 162!
14mm wheels studs with around 150 ft-lb are starting to become more common. I both the Camaro and Edge have 14mm studs. In the past 7/16, 1/2 inch or 12mm studs were very common on cars of that size.
Thank you so much to everyone for all of your advice! It is very helpful! It seems clear that over torquing the studs is the most likely reason that they are failing. I plan to replace all 5 studs on the wheel that had 2 studs fail this year. I may go ahead and replace all of the studs as it does seem likely that all of them have been over torqued in the past. Would it be necessary to replace them on all of the wheels, or just the front wheels, since the front wheels take most of the force from turning and breaking?
I have just one other question. We will start checking the torque every time the car comes back from a shop if the wheels have been removed. Is the damage caused by the over torquing itself, or from driving the car after the studs have been over torqued? In other words, would the studs need to be replaced if they were over torqued and we found it after a few miles of driving, or does the damage accumulate over time as you drive with them?
Again, thank you to everyone for your help and advice.
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Both those models are newer than my 2010 Honda.
So donāt be applying the torque for a 2016 or newer car to my Accord!
Look up the correct information for the year, make, and model youāre putting the wheels back on, instead of applying a blanket solution, or setting all tires to 35psi.
How did some of you ever pass ASE?.. 
Well, thatās because you want to ignore facts. The fact is, if thereās any problem with a wheel after being serviced, the courts will hold the shop responsible, not the customer. The court would consider the shop person the āexpertā, and, therefore, liable. Simple.
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LMAO what do the courts know!
Iām sure your judge will appreciate hearing that opinion.
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In a wrongful death lawsuit involving a wheel off, you can bet the courts will side with the plaintiff and go after the company for a very large settlement, the business, mechanic can/will be named in the lawsuit and it could ruin the carrier of said mechanic as who wants to hire someone that got someone killed, and what customer would want a killer working on their vehicle?? Even if the company wins it still will have at least $50,000 or much more in lawyer fees ā¦ and no matter what you feel or think about the courts, they still decide the outcomeā¦ A law firm will tear through a Work/Repair Order looking for anything incriminating like NOT torquing the wheels down, even if the customer signs off on the work order saying to leave the wheels loose, the company still is the protentional and knows betterā¦ The bigger the company the more the plaintiff could win, and for a smaller company it could/will bankrupt them and could be ruin the mechanic and or anybody else named in the lawsuitā¦
When you are in the business you learn and understand this especially, working for a very large companyā¦ Those that are not in the business donāt understand and like to think they doā¦
And trust me, when you work for a multi Billion $$ business they spend millions on education and training to stay out of the courtsā¦
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I urge the pros not to get so upset about customers that do not want their lug buts over torqued. It happens to customers a lot. The dealer I bought my Toyota Camry from did it at every visit!
I would go homw and attempt to loosen the lugs to retorque them and find out that I could not break them free with my 24" breaker bar and I am a big guy. I would have to put a 4āpiece of piipe over it. It felt like about 300 ft lb.
I know what 300 ft lb feels like because I drove for a trucking company where we changed our own wheels and tires on the road. We had a spare tire on the catwalk on the back of the tractor and a 12 ton jack and lug wrench under the seat. #00 lb was what our coarse thread lug nuts called for. We got some GMC tractors in with fine thread lug nuts and I told our shop manager that 300 lb was too much for themā He said 300 lb is 300 lb and did not change his mind until hey started breaking them.
The service manager at the dealership told me that they could not be over tightining them because they gave all of their guys torque sticks. I said they must be using them to hold down their paperwork.
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Did the service manager have a theory for why you werenāt able to loosen the lug nuts installed by his staff using a 2 foot breaker bar and socket?
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You know, in the last 10 or so contributions to this thread I hear a lot of arrogance among the pro mechanics here.
Reminds me of a personal experience I had with a āprofessionalā sound engineer running house for a Live at Five outdoor event some years ago. The sound was deafening and loads of feedback, 200 feet back from the stage let alone 20 feet from it in the front rows!
I was able to talk to him about it while the headliner was switching guitars for their next song, and he went:
āIām running the sound here, I know what Iām doing!ā
I replied āDonāt choke on your pride, bud.ā, and walk away while he just stared at me.
The only point I hear the pros making is that they are not going to put their shop at legal risk so that you can torque your lug nuts to your satisfaction. Seems reasonable to me.
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I never torque anything, or set anything, to my āsatisfactionā.
I torque things to another āsā word, that also ends in -n. Something my fellow Americans donāt wanna hear.
Twice while on summer travels in Montana I had a flat. Put on
the spare and had the tire repaired and reinstalled at a service station in a nearby town. Both times the mechanic left my car outside, jacked it up to put the repaired tire back on, then tightened the lug nuts with a click-type torque wrench. No air wrenches were involved.
I was impressed. I donāt recall any discussion of the torque specification. It was 90 foot-pounds on that car and the whole operation made me feel it was being done properly.
That shop that orders 100 or more on every vehicle even if the customer insists on something else (the specs?) is not a shop I would trust.
I have noticed that Discount Tires prints the torque spec on my bill, and specifies they tightened to that spec, and verbally tells me the spec when they are handing me the paperwork. I can only hope they are avoiding overtightening by sloppy use of air tools, but I am fairly confident they are doing what they say they are doing.
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