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