Cascade Crew

[Xophertony]

so those that made the swap meet saw my v6 cars tire at 5PSI.. i took the thing in to les schwab for some free flat repair. after about an hours worth of reading some 4X4 mag i finaly see them drive the car in, so i walk over. turns out there was a rivet in the tire. anyway.. the kid puts my lugs on semi-tight with an air gun and then a few more turns with a tourque wrench. i ask him what foot-pounds it's set for and he says "100 pounds" i happen to mention that i usualy go by the factory 78pounds and he replys "well over time the studs will strech out a bit and so you need to tighten them a little more, i fyou tighten to factory specs on an older car like this somtimes the wheel will still be loose" i thought "WTF, no you don't" but said nothing, took my keys and drove away laughing.

so i can except that bolts stretch. that is a fact. and i can except that this would require you to have to turn the bolt a little farther down the threads to make it just as tight. but correct me if i am wrong here: 78 lbs is 78 lbs regrdless of how far the lug travles.

for example, lets say the bolt stretched out by two inches. (ignoring the fact that any significant stretching would destroy the threads) the lug woud simply travel two inches further down the stud and still make the wheel just as tight correct? he was acting like the "factory spec" was "20 turns" or somthing. TQd is TQd. i wonder if one of the guys who actualy knows what they are talking about told him that to see how long he would believe it. or it is also possable they say things like this to customers who ask questions, and since most people don't know a TQ spec from a hole in the ground no one ever questions it.

[aaron_sK]

Meh. All Les Schwab employees claim their torque wrenches are set at 100 ft. lbs. In reality it is actually much more, I would guess around 120-140. If you have another car, I highly recommend you pull it yourself, and have them service it off the car.

[Xophertony]

he did not use an air tourque wrench he used a hand tourque wrench. i imagine if he said it was 100LBS is was 100LBS. and i always re-tourque them later.

as far as another car.... no way i am putting some nasty tire in the back of my GTA not unless i have to.

EDIT* i would go someplace else, but i don't know if anyone else does FREE flat repair.

[Dewey316]

Yeah, the alwasy over tighten. Thats just one of several reason I don't go to schawby.

[QwkTrip]

Every bolt will stretch when tightened but bolts used in reusable joints, like wheel studs, are designed to stretch within the elastic range. When you remove the bolt then it will spring back to the original length. In fact, the most accurate way to tighten a bolt is to measure bolt stretch. But that's just not practical in most cases so we use a torque wrench instead. If the bolt is tightened too much then the stress will exceed the yield point of the metal and the bolt will permanently stretch (deform). Once the bolt passes the yield point then it does take more torque to properly stretch the bolt again.

So he's partly right and partly wrong. He's right that it takes more torque to tighten the wheel lug. But he also is guilty of creating the problem in the first place by over tightening every wheel lug, whether it needs it or not.

But he's also creating extra business - a lot of extra business. The #1 cause of warped rotors is.... yep you got it... over tightened wheel lugs. So next time they tighten your lug nuts, ask them to set it to the factory recommended 74 lb-ft.

But I'd still rather have that guy tightening by hand then the people with the pneumatic impact wrenches. Talk about torture to your car. That's exactly why I rotate my own tires. It's a pain in the rear but it's cheaper in a lot of ways.

[Twilightoptics]

[Xophertony]

ahhh... i figured it might be one of those so complicated that "the wrong answer is right" situations. well, i thought it was wrong, but i had a 5% doubt that it was one of these type of deals. anyway i am prety sure he does not know all that stuff.

and yeah i always rotate my own tires. i use the air gun to take them off. but always hand tighten.

[aaron_sK]

Bah. Airgun = lug nut death. I've had two different cars with studs that had been raped by some greasemonkey with an airgun at some two-bit tire place.

[izcain]

Tire shops are usually all about getting the job done in the least amount of time possible and rarely worry about the proper tightening for our cars. Beings that I am in a shop myself I understand how come they do that since they usually have a head honcho looking over them preparing to yell at them the minute they take to long to do something. I always tell my techs to take their time when installing tires and to torque them properly since one wheel mishap and you will be sure to be out of a job quickly!

[aaron_sK]

And the shop will be out a few grand too.

[izcain]

lol yea with as sue happy as folks are these days there probably wouldn't be a shop there anymore