How tight should my nuts be ?

[Sandancers]

To do some waxoyl-ing I had to take off the front wheels from my 2014 Ford Transit base vehicle.

Normally when taking the nuts of any vehicles wheels I use a bit of scaffolding pole to give some leverage.

However, on the Transit, the nuts, while not slack, were not as tight as I would have imagined them to be. I'd have assumed they would need me swinging on a long scaffolding bar, but instead they loosened with a 1ft long extension on the socket wrench.

The nuts have what appears to be built-in shake-proof washers, with little ridges on them, which, when doing the nuts back up I sort of heard them "click" as they reached a tight position. Is this a new invention on wheel nuts or what ?

 

[Brian and Jo]

Im assuming that you have alloy wheels on your motor home . you should NEVER use a bar of any sort to tighten them.those wheel nuts that you have on yours should be torqued to 200NM.and never use air wrenches to tighten them.
Brian and Jo
forgot to add dont put any copper grease on the studs or behind the wheels either

 

[pappajohn]

Listen to Brian ^^^^^.......he's the forums professional tyre guru.

 

[Sandancers]

Im assuming that you have alloy wheels on your motor home . you should NEVER use a bar of any sort to tighten them.those wheel nuts that you have on yours should be torqued to 200NM.and never use air wrenches to tighten them.
Brian and Jo

Nope, these are ordinary, direct from Ford, steel wheels !

 

[Gorse Hill]

Im assuming that you have alloy wheels on your motor home . you should NEVER use a bar of any sort to tighten them.those wheel nuts that you have on yours should be torqued to 200NM.and never use air wrenches to tighten them.
Brian and Jo
forgot to add dont put any copper grease on the studs or behind the wheels either

Hi Brian, why do you suggest not using a air gun to tighten the nuts, had mine of recently and the garage used air gun to put them back on, mine are steel wheels
I have got access to a torque wrench so might now check them
Thks for info

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[Brian and Jo]

Nope, these are ordinary, direct from Ford, steel wheels !

sorry i thought they were alloys but the same applies anyway and same torque setting
brian and jo

 

[Techno]

Hi Brian, why do you suggest not using a air gun to tighten the nuts, had mine of recently and the garage used air gun to put them back on, mine are steel wheels
I have got access to a torque wrench so might now check them
Thks for info

It's Ok to use a gun up to a point but should be finally tightened with a torque wrench.

 

[34127]

Is 200NM standard for all vehicles

 

[Brian and Jo]

Hi Brian, why do you suggest not using a air gun to tighten the nuts, had mine of recently and the garage used air gun to put them back on, mine are steel wheels
I have got access to a torque wrench so might now check them
Thks for info

air guns are a night mare especially if they are used to ram the wheel nuts on.they can easily stretch the threads on the studs and cause damage to the hubs and there is no accurate way of telling what torque they are tightened to .if you are going to check them with a torque wrench you will need to slacken them off first because im sure they will have been overtightened with the air gun.
brian and jo

 

[buttons]

Dont forget it could be you who has to undo them on a dark wet night at the side of the road.

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[Techno]

Is 200NM standard for all vehicles

No

 

[Techno]

Fiat Peugeot Citroen BOLTS not nuts
See 15" & 16"

 

[Brian and Jo]

Is 200NM standard for all vehicles

no it is not. we have data chart with a hive of information on for all the different vechicles.its a minefield to be honest
brian and jo

 

[34127]

Thank you for your helpful reply.

 

[pappajohn]

Fiat Peugeot Citroen BOLTS not nuts
See 15" & 16"

18nm.......less than 14ftlb.
not much more than finger tight.
81nm would be nearer the mark

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[pappajohn]

Fiat Peugeot Citroen BOLTS not nuts
See 15" & 16"

Dont know where you got that from Andy......

Fiat forum reply.......


15 inch wheels M14 bolts 160Nm 118 lbs.ft
16 inch wheels M16 bolts 180 Nm. 133 lbs.ft

 

[pappajohn]

Arrrr ! Now i see.

DECA NEWTON METERS 18daNm =180Nm

 

[Techno]

Wake up John!

 

[pappajohn]

Wake up John!

Bloody europeans....nowt wrong with ftlb's

 

[tonyidle]

18nm.......less than 14ftlb.
not much more than finger tight.
81nm would be nearer the mark

18 daNm = 132.76 lbf-ft

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[Sandancers]

Thanks for all help.

 

[DBK]

...
forgot to add dont put any copper grease on the studs or behind the wheels either

I understand about the threads but why do you recommend not putting copper grease behind the wheel? I've seen alloy wheels so bound to the hub even dropping the vehicle off the Jack with the nuts loose wouldn't shift them. It took putting the vehicle on a hoist and whacking the tyres with heavy rubber mallets before they eventually came off. The garage then applied copper grease and the problem never returned.

 

[pappajohn]

18 daNm = 132.76 lbf-ft

And then i went on to say........

Arrrr ! Now i see.

DECA NEWTON METERS 18daNm =180Nm

 

[eric 83]

air guns are a night mare especially if they are used to ram the wheel nuts on.they can easily stretch the threads on the studs and cause damage to the hubs and there is no accurate way of telling what torque they are tightened to .if you are going to check them with a torque wrench you will need to slacken them off first because im sure they will have been overtightened with the air gun.
brian and jo

Too true! My last race trucks offside rear wheel studs all snapped and dropped me on the A1 ! had to close 8 miles to get me off !!

 

[Brian and Jo]

I understand about the threads but why do you recommend not putting copper grease behind the wheel? I've seen alloy wheels so bound to the hub even dropping the vehicle off the Jack with the nuts loose wouldn't shift them. It took putting the vehicle on a hoist and whacking the tyres with heavy rubber mallets before they eventually came off. The garage then applied copper grease and the problem never returned.[/QUOTE
Hi BK I know it does sounds a bit odd and we did used to use copper grease on all wheel studs and behind the wheel,but about 2 months ago we had a new autodata chart for wheel alignment and wheel fitment and it states that on certain models and chassis that the wheels be fitted back onto the vechicle dry and the 2014 transit is one of them.we as a company to do everything possible to make sure things are done to the correct spec.another thing we do is give EVERY customer a sheet reminding to come back in after 50-100mls to have the wheel nuts re-torqued.we have been drumming that into people for a long time now and its amazing how many people now do listen and come back in.
brian and jo

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[DBK]

?

Ah! A trade secret I suspect!

 

[Brian and Jo]

BK no I don't think its a trade secret but I suspect the reason will come to light.ive been in the motor industry for 42 years and I still learn something every day.and as for the new vechicles of today mind boggling
brian and jo

 

[mitzimad]

i waqs always taught no grease on anything that needs torquing as it can give false readings

 

[DBK]

i waqs always taught no grease on anything that needs torquing as it can give false readings

Yes, which is why cylinder head bolts are generally tightened with the torque-angle method because it puts more consistent tension in the cylinder head studs compared to using torque alone, especially when oil may or may not be present on the threads.

I was just trying to understand why copper grease shouldn't be used to stop an alloy wheel sticking to the hub. A bit of Googling suggests using copper grease on hubs (but not threads!) is pretty generally recommended but if anyone knows a reason why it shouldn't be used I would be interested. Experience suggests it does work and this may be based on the fact that in a list of common metals copper is the one most resistant to corrosion, so it probably forms a barrier between the iron and the aluminium which does not corrode.

 

[Cal54]

Seeing the title of this post got me interested and then when reading I realised you guys were all being serious for once! And there was me about to post "As tight as your wife wants to squeeze them"!!! Sorry couldn't resist.

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