I did my searching, so please dont get mad! I have a 2001 lightning and ive read that the lugs need to be torqued to 150 ft. lbs. If thats the case, how come I cant torque them that much? Once they reach to about 120, it feel extremely tight, like the stud will break off if i kept going. Im confused. Can someone please try to clear this up for me? All help is much appreciated. Thanks

 

Make sure the threads are clean, and I learned 20 years ago to put a tiny dab of grease on the threads. Tighten the lugs in a star pattern, or in other words tighten every other lug until you've worked around to all of them. On the first pass I just seat the lugs. Then I lower the jack until the tire is touching the ground (prevents spinning) and tighen them down a bit on the second pass. On the third pass I use the torque wrench and take them to 150.

 

Thank you for your reply. I did exactly that, but for some reason i cant torque them to 150. It feels like the stud will break off by then.

 

Dont put anything on the threads - this can cause the lug nuts to loosen and the wheel to fall off

Only put one drop of oil between the washer and the main portion of the nut - then tourque to 150 ft.lbs. (no oil on stud, or between wheel and lug nut, only 1 drop between the main nut and washer portion of the lug nut - its important thats why i repeated myself)

BTW the trucks with 14 mm studs are 150 ft.lbs, the trucks with 12 mm studs are 100 ft.lbs.

Also inspect your studs for any signs of stretch (can happen from a number of wheel on and off, or from the use of impacts)

Maybe your tourque wrench is off? If they've ever been droped it can knock them out of calibration. Most dealerships will retourque them for free, if there is one close to you that might be an option.

 

Thanks man. My torque wrench is brand new, so it should be accurate. I was just told over on socalloc.com to torque them to only 90 ft. lbs

 

Really the torque number is secondary.the main thing is to get them evenly torqued.I run mine at 85 pound[12mm] and have not had one come off yet.120 should be more than enough for street driving recheck them after about 100 miles and you would be fine.Stan
PS do not try and torque them rite after you have driven the vehicle the studs WILL stretch.

 

Thanks Stan. That was very helpful.

 

150 is way to much...even for the 14mm studs. 100#s is more than enough.

 

Agreed.

Once I had some tires installed at a Goodyear store. When they were replacing the wheels, I asked them to make sure that they torqued them to 150 lbs. ft.

The guy looked at me like I was nuts. The store used a rack of high-tech, pre-calibrated torque wrenches. They didn't have anything even close to 150.

Since then, I use 120 on my clicker torque wrench (which could be +/- 20 or so, as clickers are usually not very accurate). Never had a problem and I change wheels frequently.

 

I don't even use lugnuts.

I just jb weld the rims right to the rotors. Less spinning mass.

 

I've always considered the pitch of the threads to be as much of a consideration as the diameter in determining the holding power of any fastener. The most common "inch" threads for lug nuts are 7/16"-20 and 1/2"-20. At 20 pitch, it takes 20 turns of the nut to move it an inch. You can also think of it as a 20 pitch thread being .050 from thread to thread; 20 x .050 equaling one inch.
Metric threads are normally measured by the distance between threads. For example, a 14 x1.5 thread is 14 mm in diameter and 1.5 mm from thread to thread. A 1.5 mm pitch thread converted to an inch basis is about a 16 pitch thread.

The finer the thread, the greater the force it exerts for any given torque. As such, a 20 pitch thread exerts about 20% more force than a 16 pitch thread at the same torque. Millions of cars are driving around with 20 pitch threads torqued to about about 100 lb/ft. Take a 1.5 pitch thread to 120 lb/ft. and you have exerted about the same tension on the wheel/stud/nut combination. I share Mr. Skelton's feelings: 120 seems to be more than adequate. I don't recall reading very many threads about the wheels coming off all the 1999's running around at only 100 lb/ft. I find the idea of taking the lug nuts to 150 to be uncomfortable at best.

 

heh tighten them as best u can... if not ur gonna be cursing urself on the side of the road when u got a flat...

 

Ive never torqued any of the lugnuts on any car ive owned.
I have just gone by feel pretty much and always used antiseize on the threads.
So far, thankfully, they have never come loose at all.

 

I've torqued mine at 90ft lbs since day one. Still, when I go to rotate my tires and/or put on the DR's I wrack my elbow joint getting those lug nuts loose! I guess I need a 3' breaker bar or it may be that I'm just a weakling!

 

Time to go and re-torque all the lugs to 90. Thank you very much everyone.