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Old May 30th 20, 03:23 AM posted to rec.autos.tech
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Default Torque Wrench Safety Question

I recently bought a torque wrench - the modern shaft collar design, 20-150ft lb torque,
and the appropriate size six point sockets for the lugnuts on mine and my wife's cars.

I recently loosened and re-torqued my wife's wheel lugnuts to spec, or maybe 1lb over,
but what was really scary was how tight they were on, initially. Of course I used her
tire iron, and not my new wrench! to loosen the lugs at each wheel, and for most of them,
I was able to STAND ON THE TIRE IRON and ride it down to loosen those nuts! I'm
guessing whoever last tightened them must have been to 100 or even 200 ft/lbs. WTH?!

The torque spec for her car's wheel lugnuts is 76 ft/lbs, so I set the wrench to about 77,
retorqued each wheel, then moved on to the next one: Loosen, retorque, 5X.

My question: After having been on her car at such overtorque for so long, is there any
risk of some of her lugnuts loosening, now that they are all within 1 pound of where they
should be?

I also waited almost two hours after she drove home from work before loosen & retorque.


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