Overtightened lug nuts

MB_Girl_2005
Wed, 08 Oct 2014 00:02:29 +0000
Maintenance/Repairs

I took my car to my usual trusty mechinic. Trusty asked where I had had the last rotation done. All the lug nuts were overtightened. The manual says to tighten to 96 pound-feet (that’s a measure of torque).All the nuts were tightened well past this. Many came loose at 200 foot-pounds. More at 300 foot-pounds (that’s as high as they wanted to go with their pneumatic torque wrench). There were still 5 nuts that didn’t budge.
They brought out the manual torque wrench and muscled 4 of those loose. But one on the left rear wheel wouldn’t come loose. So they made it a 3-wheel rotation, and left the left-rear wheel in place.
I had a pucture driving over a piece of road junk last spring out of state and had to buy a new tire. Clearly the people at Roadside Tire had no clue (although why they messed with the other three wheels is a mystery. But although the left rear is the newest tire, i still don’t want to have to trade the car in when the tire is worn! Nor do I want to trash out the rest of the assembly (i have no idea what that would involve or cost).
Any suggestions about what to do? (Clearly finding Roadside Tire back and using their lug wrench on the vilain who did this is not an option.)

28 posts - 18 participants