How many times did you torque your wheels when new?

TLDR
Just curious how many times you re-torqued your new wheels.

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I watched the tire shop set them to 83 with their torque wrench...they said to stop back at 50 miles to have them re-torqued, but it's kind of a drive so I figured I'd do it myself.

I torqued them again at 20 miles (I set it to 85, which is within 2-4% accuracy that I believe my torque wrench is, of 83 lb-ft [that's to say that my 85 could very well be your 83 and your 83 could be my 85 - there's no real way to know, so I figured I'd play it safe]).

Since mostly all of them did move a little bit, I decided to check them again at about 80 miles, and I had about half of them move a bit.

I double checked them again today after about 150 miles and one or two moved an almost non-discernible amount.

I feel like they're pretty good now for the long haul.

 

I torqued mine to exactly 70% of all my might. 25 years of driving. Yet to have one single issue. Fail safe. Thanks Toyota engineers but I got this one.

 

IMO, it's not as important with OEM(hubcentric-flat washer wheels) as it is with after market(lugcentric-conical lugnut wheels). Creep relaxation is a bigger deal with them. You'll notice, the recommendation to re-torque comes mostly from aftermarket, lugcentric wheels manufacturers.
I've never re-torqued my OEM wheels.

 

Why do you need to re torque? Never heard of this

 

I figured this was obvious.

 

Never done it on any of the 6 cars i've owned and none of the shops ever mentioned it. I've managed to survive

 

Initial retorque on aftermarket new wheels is done to make sure the wheels are conforming to the mounting surface, that there are no obstructions between the mounting surfaces which would limit the clamping force and cause a wheel to loosen and eventually fall off. Discount Tire recommends a single retorque after 50 miles. The safety of our customers is our first consideration this ensures a good fit.

 

Here's a pertinent excerpt, from a engineering analysis on wheel attachment failure. PDF attached below.

The loss of some portion of the installation clamp force
over time and during vehicle operation is inevitable and is
attributable to several factors. Because of the imperfect
mating of parts, there will always be small areas in the
wheel nut seat, the wheel nut, and the wheel bolt in which
high local stresses are created. Such imperfections are
necessarily present in the nut seat areas of the wheel,
especially those in which conical or spherical wheel nuts
are used. This is because there will always be some amount
of mismatch between the wheel bolt, the nut, and the nut
seat. This situation has been described in some detail by
Searle [2], who illustrated one aspect of this mismatch in
the sketch of Fig. 4, taken from his paper. Although the
effects of mismatch can be minimized by modern
machining methods, they cannot be eliminated. Over time,
these high local stresses are reduced through the process of
creep relaxation, and the resulting conversion of high local
elastic strains to plastic strains causes a loss of bolt tension
(clamp force) and residual nut torque. This effect is compounded during vehicle operation by the higher-than ambient operating temperatures and by the additional forces applied to the wheels, particularly during cornering
maneuvers and rough-road operation. These effects are
more apparent in aluminum than steel wheels because of
the greater resistance of steel to creep relaxation and the
greater effect of increased temperature on the strength
characteristics of aluminum alloys. To counteract the
tendency for loss of clamp force, some automotive manu￾facturers have required users to re-tighten the wheel nuts
after a specified interval (such as 100 or 500 miles) each
time a wheel has been removed and re-installed. (At least
one manufacturer has required a re-tightening procedure on
vehicles equipped with aluminum alloy wheels, but not
stamped steel wheels.)

 

I rarely retorque unless its cheap knock off wheels. Even then it rarely loosens.

 

Out of curiosity; do you use a torque wrench or torque sticks at work?

 

Also...which pattern do you use for 6-lug?
This?



Or, this?
Found this in the Fox TRD suspension instructions...

 

both, I do pretty much the pattern shown

I impact with a torque stick for one big reason. Incase I forgot to torque with the wrench.

2 million tire rotations I need redundancy.

I never forget, but it’s nice to know it can drive away and I’m not going to lose my job lol

I don’t use sticks on high end rims. But I rarely see those anymore

 

meh this isn't an O&G pipeline on a 1500# flange once is fine

 

Ummm…..

Never…..one and done…

until the next rotation.

 

Star pattern; torqued once when wheel is reinstalled after tire rotations. I do check them a few times during that process, but that's it until the next service.

I'm aware of Costco having a clause recommending re-torquing after so many miles, but I think that's more of a cover their arse clause.

 

I recheck mine at 50-100 whenever I change out wheels. Anyone who has someone else install their wheels is crazy to not double check the lug nuts at some point.
Repeated on and off with an impact gun and no torque stick is a great way to have studs fail.

 

I was told to re-torque at 50 and then again at 100. I just re-torqued anyway at 25 and at least one or two lugs per wheel needed a re-torque. After seeing a few tires flying on the freeway I'll take the 5 minutes to re-torque it.

 

Honestly can’t believe all the discussion on lug nut torque and retorque. Dude…this isn’t an engine assembly. Make ‘em goodntite and be done. Never torqued a lug nut on any vehicle in my life…lmfao…

 

I'd argue that re-torqueing your wheels makes more sense than having to go back and re-torque your rod bearings or your cylinder head lol. Did you even think about the comparison you're making, before making it?

 

Every tuesday