More and more I am inclined to compare fixated, compulsive adherence to “official dogma” with fixation on following the directions of a GPS. It’s as outrageous to consider using anti seize on lugs criminal sabotage as it is to drive in circles following the delirium of RECALCULATING.
How destructive is motor oil on lugs? Before answering go into a muddy field with a 1" breaker bar with a 1-1/2" socket and remove and reinstall the rear wheel on a tractor. You’ll wish that the threads had been lubricated at the previous installation. Same when dealing with a flat on a dual wheel bob truck with 8 lug wheels on the side of a busy highway.
Again, after many years using anti seize on wheel lugs without using a torque wrench I have never, ever had a failure resulting from doing so. From Chevettes to tandem axle dump trucks there was never a failure and most of the vehicles were in fleets that no one worked on outside my shop.
At the very least, you should inspect them to see if they have loosened up at all. Use a torque wrench to retorque them and if the bolt or nut moves at all, then they were getting loose. If they were getting loose, clean the threads with a solvent like a brake cleaner and add some loctite to the threads. I suspect that if they were properly torqued in the first place, they will not move on a retorque.
The factory service manual will usually say when Loctite or similar adhesive is recommended on a bolt, nut, or stud. It’s not a very common thing except on some drive train parts (clutch, differential gears, etc) . I wouldn’t guess it is needed on the suspension parts you are working on, but consulting the factory service manual will say yes or no if you want certainty.
FYI - Ford used anti-seize on lug-nuts from the factory starting in the 80’s. They had to make special acorn nuts with a small air-relief hole in them so air-tools could achieve proper torque due to air-lock effect.
Everything that I take apart in dissimilar metals or with a lock-washer, locking nut or back-up nut gets a little anti-seize on my cars, unless it is an assembly already packed with grease, or is an open hole into a water passage or intake or other fluid.
You wanna do it dry and then break it later, fine. Not me.
Another FYI - the thread lands are a much larger area of contact than the little cone on a lug nut. Do the math. For instance, the thread contact area of a 1/2-20 bolt is about .75 sq.in. for 1" of engagement. That would require a 1/2" lug nut with an OD of about 1" IN FULL CONTACT WITH THE WHEEL, which only occurs on alloys, oh, dissimilar metals, use anti-seize - lol
I’ve had the “I won’t work on a car with a foreign substance on the lugs” crap before. That is just lazy-mechanicin’.
Oh it’s been a year. I thought it looked familiar. I really can’t recall what I’ve used lock tight on but you can tell if it has been used before and then I use it. Just the blue stuff though. Now I use anti-sieze on the trailer lug bolts because it sits out all the time and if you have to change a tire on the road, you need to get the bolts off without the benefit of air tools. Plus, it’s hard to keep the tire from spinning when you crank on the bolts. I also use it on my mower blade bolts and have never had a problem with them coming loose. If its subjected to rust, once I get it off I tend to use it on non-critical, non-automotive parts.