Lug Nut torques specs-Is it really that important?

poconojoe · June 11, 2022

13 minutes ago, CamGTP said:

Chrysler has had terrible lug nuts for a long time now. Salt gets under the cap and swells the lug nuts too. We just beat sockets onto them to get them off. Sometimes it takes a 23mm to get a 22mm off or it steps down to a 18mm from a standard 19mm if the caps break off.

Thanks for the info!

I did try exactly what you said. I beat a few different types of sockets onto it. Even tried 6 point vs 12 point. Standard sockets, impact sockets. I picked up a set of those bolt removal sockets.

Nothing worked.

What type of socket do you think would work best?

poconojoe · June 11, 2022

Every socket I beat on it just sheared off when turning it. Easily too. The metal was just crap. I'm sure it would have grabbed if it was made of actual steel.

I even thought about welding a nut onto it, but it was just really crap metal.

Good point about the salt getting in them. We get our share of salted roads.

Combine that with an overzealous "mechanic" with an impact gun and you get a nightmare.

16LT4 · June 13, 2022

On 6/11/2022 at 6:54 PM, poconojoe said:

It didn't help that Chrysler made crappy lug nuts. They are steel inside, but the nut part itself was just a peeling chrome cap. A lot of manufacturers have this now. They care more about shiny chrome than strength.

Same with the K2 trucks: tin cap over a steel lug nut. I've had to replace a dozen of mine on my '16 because the nut rusts and swells, the pretty cap swells (and splits at the 6 points), and it is difficult to get a socket on it. I rotate my tires every 5k miles, so fortunately I've never had it get back enough that I couldn't remove the lugs on the truck. My '86 442 had the same pretty acorn lugs and those did swell bad enough that I couldn't get a socket on them, so the easiest solution is just to snip/rip/remove the pretty acorn from its steel core and get a one-size-smaller socket on the naked nut. I've picked up full-steel solid replacements at Autozone for the truck, and replace the factory nuts as I need to.

On the torquing... I always do. After tire installation, I even go so far as to loosen and retorque the wheels, depending on who did the work and if physically saw them with the torque wrench. I've snapped stock lugs on used vehicles because of previous gorilla work stretching the lugs beyond their elasticity point. Also important that the lugs receive a LIGHT dab of antiseize; rusty lugs give false torque readings, resulting in the wheel (and brake rotor) being undertorqued. The lug stretch is what keeps the lug nut installed, not whether the nut is easy or difficult to turn. I've never seen a wet lug break, but have seen plenty of dry lugs break. Personally, I prefer lug bolts over lug nuts, as long as the vehicle is hub-centric (my VW is annoyingly lug-centric, with lug bolts); at least if one snaps, it's exponentially easier to extract and replace the broken piece than a stud.

mikeyk101 · June 13, 2022

The way it was explained to me many years ago... Especially on 4wd vehicles where the lug nuts are also part of securing the brake rotors, torquing is a must. If this isn't done, and even torque isnt applied to every lug nut, there is a strong possibility that the rotors will warp and you end up with the dreaded pulsing brake pedal.

I was warned about this when I was much younger and had brought in another truck for service because of a pulsing brake problem. The pads still had a lot of life yet but they obviously had to be changed out as well. Ever since then, any time any of the wheels come off for service, I always double check the torque after getting home. I'm sure this has saved me a few times...

Just to add, I also experienced the "swelling" lug nuts when I had an older Dodge Dakota. Luckily I caught them before they became too much of a problem and IIRC, I picked up a complete set of Dorman lug nuts to replace them all.

Edited June 13, 2022 by mikeyk101