A Rant to Wheel/Suspension Shops, Too much torquing wheels Options

[Celicav]

Well, I recently wanted to switch the wheels between the two 6gcs I currently own, and decided I was going to try and do it myself. I have actually never tried to take a wheel off a car before (I am 29, and somehow never have gotten a flat, and new to working on cars), so I went out and bought a jack, jack stands, and all that crap. Well, I go to try to take the first lug nut off the wheel, and it will not come off for the life of me...then a second, and a third, etc, and none would budge. Granted I was using the spare tire wrench, which is only like a foot long, but I was standing on the wrench, pulling up on it as hard as possible. Now, I am not the strongest or heaviest guy in the world (about 165 lbs), but I am in shape and fairly strong.

I think I was having no success, b/c I previously got the wheels serviced at Sears, and I think they are over torqueing them b/c they use those damn impact wrenches. I learned that you are only supposed to put like 80 ft/lbs of torque down when tightening the lugs on Celicas, or ANY Toyota CAR, and you should only tighten lugs down BY HAND. I know, I know, these shops use the guns in the interest of time...but this makes it impossible for a lot of people to change their own tire on the side of the road if they don't have a breaker bar or something. Plus, I read that over torque can do damage like to the lugs, wheels, etc. You know what I mean?

By the way, does anyone know the wheel bolt diamater on our wheels (inches/mm)? And, does a good size breaker bar usually solve the stubborn lug issue? I guess with the extra inches on the bar, you have to put down less pounds when turning. Thanks.

This post has been edited by Celicav: Dec 6, 2005 - 11:45 PM

[Verde97]

I've ran into this problem before, too.

You are correct when you said that Toyota's need 80 ft/lbs of torque. They need NO MORE. Sears used an impact gun to torque your wheels. A lot of places do this, unfortunately.

A 4-way may do the trick to get them off, but not likely. What I would do: take your car to Sam's Club. They are REQUIRED to use torque wrenches on their impact guns so that the wheels are torqued the right amount. By doing this, you will also be able to get your existing wheels off.

By overtorqueing, the studs can be severely damaged, and possibly break off when the wheels are being taken off again.

Hope this helps...