Lug Nuts Torqued by Dealer 400 ft lbs!!!!

[mojovious]

My new 09 GT has 400 miles on it, living in the snow belt the first thing i did was get some snow shoes. Got TPMS and the works. Had the tires mounted on the new wheels today. Brought them home and was going to change the wheels in my garage as i do with all my cars.

Good grief, I spent half hour on the first lug nut. First with my breaker bar which is good for at least 250 ft lbs of torque, nothing. I put a cheater bar and put enough pressure so the breaker bar was bending (it's a craftsman 1/2 inch professional breaker bar) and still the lug didn't budge. I added another foot to the cheater, so now there's the breaker bar plus 2 feet feet of additonal leverage. The breaker bar was bending to the point i felt something was going to snap, like the rivet that allows the head to pivot. I stopped using this because if it broke, it was going to damage something and i didn't want it to be my wheel, the paint or my 350z sitting next to the G. So I then went and got my medium duty air impact wrench and with 110 lbs of air pressure and the air impact wrench set to it's most agressive setting, i went to work. Nothing! I tried all five lug nuts with the same result. The lug nuts actually appear to be warping where the socket contacts the edges. It is so stupid for the apes to put these on so they cannot be removed. The spec is 100 ft lbs, although i know some of you think it's 125 ft lbs. That is elementary because i know i had at least 400 ft lbs of pressure and they didn't budge.

Dammit!

I guess my only choice is to take it to the dealer and have them loosen the lug nuts.

[PontiacDan]

well, sounds like the dealer just rub them up with an impact gun without any torqe bit or anything, good luck. Ive seen an F250 like that one time, ended up using a 3/4 impact gun at 160psi to get the lugs off......no permanent damage done tho--i was doing a brake job on it & had to turn the rotors anyways

[BlueJacket]

Dealer did the same to me. I keep thinking the my breaker bar was going to break due to the amount of bend I was putting in it.

[roSSco]

They should fire the ape that did that!

[R.Penguin]

They should fire the ape that did that!
Better yet, torque HIS nuts to 400. :p

[WhyteSS]

wow !!!

[Chewy]

Damn! I think I torqued mine at around 100 or maybe a bit more when I put my snows on.

I have an electric impact at home that I use though.

Chris

[confused2much]

I tried for 30 min. to loosen mine too....then I gave up and took it to have my winter rims put on.

[confused2much]

Better yet, torque HIS nuts to 400. :p

Were talking about his lug nuts still right? lol.:nutkick:

[GM_Fan]

That's just crazy. You can see many of the express oil/tire places doing the same thing. The guy sets the gun to "kill" and torques the heck out of the lugs.

I had a flat one time and I ended up breaking 2 studs off and driving gingerly home.

[PontiacDan]

this is why I work on my own stuff--too many horror stories.

At least if you do something like that, you know who to blame

[gtagman]

When i replaced the 19" factory set up for the winter with the V6 18" wheels & RSA'S, the first wheel came off with no problem drivers front. Then went to drivers rear wheel, the 1/2 breaker bar did not have enough leverage to break any lugs free. Out of curiosity i took out the 1/2 snapon torque wrench & pegged it at 250ft/lbs no luck same with leverage. Time for a 3ft extension pipe still no luck it bent it was mild steel. Last a 6ft long hollow square stock pipe. It took 5 1/2 feet of leverage to break lugs free. The rest on the passenger side of the car were like the first one normal.

The assembly line torque gun was not off a little, but alot, like an extra 300ft/lbs or so!!! Good thing the breaker bar didnt pop off the lug or i would of smashed the door and broke the window. I thought this was just a fluke & never discussed this issue on here because of it but now I'm not the only one.

God forbid if peoples G8's do have a spare tire kit you will be stuck with that wrench not being able to break lugs free.

If any of you G8 owners haven't taken your wheels off yet for any given reason or another, i would check the lug torque just in case you have an unexpected flat tire in the middle of nowhere, and not have anything to help give you leverage, if it was anything like mine a plain old lug wrench is not enuf.

I keep a good T- handle plug kit in my trunk just in case i get a flat & i will use the compressor with out the fix a flat p.s. that stuff is a bitch to clean off of the inside of the wheel & if not cleaned off good enough it could cause
road vibrations later on possibly, due to an imbalance. So fix a flat is last resort for me.

I felt like the Ikea furniture assembly guy video.LoL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkFAn0D3x9U&eurl=http://forum.grrrr8.net/showthread.php?t=2850&feature=player_embedded

originally posted by Blackdevil77

[mojovious]

Went to the dealer last night and watched as the master tech (he was excellent) evaluated the torque of the lugs. He used a very large torque wrench to measure the degree the lug nuts had been torqued. This was a factory installation, not the dealer by the way.

He set it to 150 ft lbs, tried to remove - it clicked with no movement.
He set it to 180 ft lbs & tried again, it clicked with no movement.
He set it to 200, click - no movement.
260 - click, no movement.
300 - click, no movement. He was blown away.
That was as high as his big wrench measured.
He got his big impact air wrench and went to work, nothing! It didn't budge!
He went and got a huge 1 inch drive 22mm socket and a huge ass breaker bar - one of the biggest I've seen. He bounced up and down on it (he's a fairly big guy) and it didn't budge! He then put a 1.5 ft cheater bar on it and bounced again - he was actually off the ground bouncing on this set up. His tools were such that there was little risk of anything snapping, as in my case with the 1/2 inch set up. After several more tries he broke it free - undamaged. He repeated the same procedure on all five lugs on that wheel.
the other wheels were not so difficult.

He loosened all lugs and retorqued to 105 ft lbs. / I came home and installed my winter set up.

He said he had never seen an auto lug application torqued that much.
Ridiculous.

The dealer was excellent. Hope that continues if needed the the future.

[jnak]

Wouldn't that warp your rotors to have your lugs so tight?

[Slizzo]

All sorts of bad things can come of that. Smallest (or largest, depending on how bad it is) is that you would have weakened/snapped off a couple lugs. If you weakened them, that would be a larger worry I would say, as you could be going down the highway at 70-80MPH and lose a lug, or two, or three. (this has happened to me, not a fun experience).

Many implications. Basically, make sure that everything is torqued to within spec. Then there's no worries but the usual failures.

[gtagman]

My rotor after fixing over tq. condition was ok on that 1 over tightened wheel
as for an imbalance or out of round condition no problems. Also on the brakes there is no pulsation.

It is obvious that one assembly line torque gun was way out of factory torque spec.

From what i see on everone who posted on having this problem, 99.9% the root cause for sure was done in final assembly in OZ. my op.:wtf:


Anyone who has not checked lugs, I would before you try to take wheels off with out the worlds largest air gun or leverage bar!!!!!!!

[Eric_GT]

Somewhere I read 90-95 ft lbs of torque.
What is the consensus- 105?

[EcoBrick Bob]

My installer torqued my new Beyern wheels to 92 lbs.

I switched out original lugs for chrome back in April 08'. Had no issues removing them.
However, remember reading an article in an auto mag 2 years ago about a Volvo V70 R that had a flat, and they found the lugs torqued to over 300 lbs. Had to load on flatbed and take to a dealer.
Think this torque issue might be like the "can in the door" issues of the 70's! Disgruntled assembly line employee tests impact wrench!~!!!!

[-Ray-]

My installer torqued my new Beyern wheels to 92 lbs.

I switched out original lugs for chrome back in April 08'. Had no issues removing them.
However, remember reading an article in an auto mag 2 years ago about a Volvo V70 R that had a flat, and they found the lugs torqued to over 300 lbs. Had to load on flatbed and take to a dealer.
Think this torque issue might be like the "can in the door" issues of the 70's! Disgruntled assembly line employee tests impact wrench!~!!!!

Impact wrenches on assembly lines are supposed to be calibrated units. That is when they reach their torque value they slip just like a torque wrench.
How this happens is beyond me.

[S&W 44 Mag]

My concern would be the Aluminum Mag Wheel. When I bought my first car with aluminum wheels a mechanic friend of mine told me to buy a torque wrench because he knew I rotate my tires every 5 thousand miles. He stated over tightening will harm the wheel hole. It spreads it out more and faster than steel. I’m a Pipe Fitter but it sure sounds right to me…

[WVG8GT]

My new 09 GT has 400 miles on it, living in the snow belt the first thing i did was get some snow shoes. Got TPMS and the works. Had the tires mounted on the new wheels today. Brought them home and was going to change the wheels in my garage as i do with all my cars.

Good grief, I spent half hour on the first lug nut. First with my breaker bar which is good for at least 250 ft lbs of torque, nothing. I put a cheater bar and put enough pressure so the breaker bar was bending (it's a craftsman 1/2 inch professional breaker bar) and still the lug didn't budge. I added another foot to the cheater, so now there's the breaker bar plus 2 feet feet of additonal leverage. The breaker bar was bending to the point i felt something was going to snap, like the rivet that allows the head to pivot. I stopped using this because if it broke, it was going to damage something and i didn't want it to be my wheel, the paint or my 350z sitting next to the G. So I then went and got my medium duty air impact wrench and with 110 lbs of air pressure and the air impact wrench set to it's most agressive setting, i went to work. Nothing! I tried all five lug nuts with the same result. The lug nuts actually appear to be warping where the socket contacts the edges. It is so stupid for the apes to put these on so they cannot be removed. The spec is 100 ft lbs, although i know some of you think it's 125 ft lbs. That is elementary because i know i had at least 400 ft lbs of pressure and they didn't budge.

Dammit!

I guess my only choice is to take it to the dealer and have them loosen the lug nuts.



What is the recommended torque? 100-150?

Also, what did you go with as for winter tires? I live in area prone to snow, as of right now i have the all seasons and 140lb's of sand in the trunk. I was considering getting some 225/55 17's and rims with some blizzacks for the winter. I have heard this car isnt that bad in the snow so long as you dont drive like a moron :blink:

[wreckwriter]

125

[IXLR8]

It seems like wheels locks are not as effective as the 400 ft/lb method. No one is going to steal what they cannot get loose...

[l.i. bruce fan]

Revisiting an old issue: my driver's side front is gorilla torqued, I can't get them to budge (the other 3 were tighter than spec, but I was able to loosen them and re-torqued to spec - I was planning on putting on my new snow shoes, but no point in doing 3).

Any thoughts on how to get the insanely torqued on lug nuts free, other than brute force? I've already bent the pipe I use for leverage, and I'm afraid of snapping my socket wrench or the lug itself.

Other posts on other forums have suggested a torch to heat up the lugs, if I had steel wheels on I would do it, but I'm worried about damaging the OEM 18x8 wheels. Tried some Liquid Wrench, but other than stinking up my garage, I don't think the LW is going to help with lug nuts that have been tightened to 300+ lb/ft.

[GRRRR8]

If you can get a impact socket and a long breaker bar, that's how I do them at the shop when they come in too tight. A breaker bar and a piece of pipe will suffice with an impact socket as well.

[l.i. bruce fan]

If you can get a impact socket and a long breaker bar, that's how I do them at the shop when they come in too tight. A breaker bar and a piece of pipe will suffice with an impact socket as well.

You think the regular socket might not hold up? I've already bent the pipe I usually use for leverage, guess I need a beefier pipe...

[Crazy Paul]

Get the breaker bar and pipe extension horizontal and stand on it.
While standing on it give the pipe a smack with a big hammer.
If you're a bit unco, get a friend to do the smack.

[whiterp199]

http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp?P65=&tool=all&item_ID=81261&group_ID=24800&store=&dir=catalog

I have used this in a pinch to take the wheels off a semi.

[l.i. bruce fan]

Turns out all I needed was a breaker bar, 2 sockets (one broke) and a very good (and large) friend...

[GAG8]

The 2008 GT manual states the Wheel Nut Torque should be 125 lb-ft

[Seattle09GT]

Wouldn't that warp your rotors to have your lugs so tight?

That is what I was thinking too. I won't go back to the Discount Tire in Kirkland (off 124th I believe) for this reason. Grossly over-torqued the lugs on my Pontiac Grand Prix and warped the front rotors and resulting in two broken studs during a tire rotation.

But this story - just - feckin' wow - that is INSANE.

[l.i. bruce fan]

The 2008 GT manual states the Wheel Nut Torque should be 125 lb-ft

We've all read that, but apparently the folks building our cars didn't read it...

[Seattle09GT]

We've all read that, but apparently the folks building our cars didn't read it...

Well, duh, everything is upside down in Aussieland. There it reads 521!!!

[mikemaj82]

how in the world did they even put those lugs on without snapping anything off?