Lugnut torque

pbdevastator

Registered User
Is there a specific torque i should be using on the rims? I have 03 cobra replicas and one of the bolts for it is stripped, had to use another bolt from factory set in its place. Usually just tighten till i cant anymore but dont think thats a good idea anymore lol.
 
usually cars are 80-90ft.lbs and trucks are 100-110ft.lbs but as a bolt gets used it stretches changing the rating and usually needing a little more torque, but you are probably fine with about 90ft.lbs
 
I do 80ft-lbs and yes once the bolt is stretched beyond its elastic point its gone. If you have strip out ones you have gone too far.

I require my tire shops to use a torque wrench or torque bar.
 
Regardless of what torque value you use, a bolt can only be accurately torqued up a finite number of times before it starts to lose it's elasticity. The closer you get to it's maximum torque the lower the # of times it can be retorqued.

This doesn't mean that if you use 70ftlbs the bolt (stud) will last just that much longer because you have to remember that a minimum amount is required to hold tension. 80ftlbs is the minimum that will hold tension to keep the wheel properly tight. 90 is a more average amount, and 100 is approaching the max strength point for a 12mm stud. The stud will fail much faster if torquing to 100ftlbs.

This is not an issue if you install wheels 4-5 times over the life of the car, but if you find yourself changing wheels often (like at the track every weekend) then 100ftlbs is going to wear out the studs much quicker than you probably think.

Just as a casual reference, when you torque a 12mm bolt/stud, if you take the bolt to about 60ftlbs first and then step up to 90ftlbs you'll find that a good bolt will reach torque within about 90 deg of rotation. If you find you are having to turn a lot more than that on some of the studs to get 90ftlbs, then they are beyond elasticity and are entering failure. If you are ever tightening a bolt and it seems like it takes a long time to go from "tight" to "torque" then that should be a big huge red flag.
 
Ok thanks for the info guys. Its much easier on my back to use a torque wrench up to 90 or 100 then using the good old crossbar and tighten as much as i can. Guess i should get a new lug nut set.
 
Torque to 100ftlbs. Most foreign cars now torque to 80 or 90. Most american cars torque to 100 with the exception of 4-lug american vehicles. My torque chart at work says to torque to 100ftlbs so that's what i torque to. If you've been tightening the lug nuts until you can't turn a wrench anymore you have most likely stretched the studs and they will need to be replaced!
 
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The Helm service manual says tighten to 85 to 105 ft-lbs. Personally, I've always torqued to 98 ft-lbs for 16 years on my '95 (which currently has 196,000 miles on it) and never had a problem, and that includes tire rotations at every 7500 miles.
 
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