posted 09-15-2015 08:50 AM                  

plus many mechanics use a impact gun to put wheels on .
When they should use the proper torque specs..

posted 09-15-2015 11:09 AM                  

I removed my wheels once a year and cleaned the hub and the back side of the rim and put a little grease in that area after that they came off easy. Dissimilar metal corrosion, steel and aluminum is the problem.

The easy way to break the wheel loose is to loosen the lug nuts a little and drive around in a circle and let the cars weight break it loose.

I was returning from a funeral and dressed in a suit and tie while I owned the 1977 Cougar and when I stopped at an oasis on the Indiana Toll Road to grab a bite to eat my wife heard air leaking out of the right front tire. I always carried a three pound hammer and a 2 x 4 because I knew about the wheel problem already. I had the car jacked up and it wouldn't budge that is when I got the idea of letting the car break it loose. I put the lug nut back on part way and drove around in a circle a couple of times and when I jacked the car up again it came right off. The tire wasn't completely flat in my case. If the tire will still hold air I would put some in it to do this procedure.

posted 09-15-2015 06:16 PM                  

quote:

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Originally posted by mslc10:
We always used plumbing Teflon thread sealant on lugs and wheel mounting surfaces of our 18 wheelers in the oil field. That stuff is great! Also use it on any stainless -to -stainless hardware, this will keep stainless from galling which is worse than rusted reg. hardware !

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I think he was talking about removing the entire wheel after the lug nuts were removed.

If you don't remove the corrosion on the backside of the wheel and reinstall the wheel you stand the chance of the wheel coming loose. This kind of corrosion wouldn't happen to a Prowler because they are only driven in good weather but a Northern car with road salt is the real problem. Does your tire dealer suggest that you retorque your wheels after a tire change? Liability is my guess. Costco calls a few days after you get new tires and tells you to stop by so they can retorque the lug nuts.

posted 09-18-2015 06:45 PM                  

quote:

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Originally posted by mslc10:
Yes the " wheel mounting surfaces" are the hub circle and the back of the wheel. Re-torque of "NEW" items, wheels, studs ,or lug nut s are recommended. If you are just rotating then not so much.

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Up north, cleaning the corrosion off the back side of any aluminum wheel is critical and the hub of the car. What happens is you disturb it and then you remount the wheel and torque it down and all you do is smash all that garbage between the wheel and the hub. You think it's tight and as you drive it eventually works loose. I can see where you don't have that problem in Texas because of road salt and long hard winters like up north.

http://www.meaforensic.com/wheel-separation-investigation-metallurgical -expert-mark-bailey-mea-forensic

Losing the clamping force

Most often the wheels are put on with the correct clamping force and they stay that way and the wheels never separate. However, under certain conditions even wheel nuts that were properly torqued can lose their clamping force.

One of the leading causes for lost clamping force is that the material being clamped changes. The material being clamped consists of the portion of the wheel surrounding the stud holes and the brake drum or rotor. Thinning the amount of material by even a very small amount can lead to drastic reductions in clamping force.

Some reasons for thinning are wear of paint coatings on brake drums, break up of corrosion deposits or dirt that was in the ‘sandwich’ when the wheel was put on, and fretting wear of aluminum wheels.

Figure 9 shows an example of corrosion (visible as orange-brown iron oxide) from an iron brake rotor on a passenger car with aluminum (or “alloy”) wheels. In this case the corrosion developed on the iron brake rotor in the exposed spaces where the aluminum wheel flange did not press on the rotor, leaving a clean contact patch or “footprint” of the wheel flange on the rotor. The corrosion is not problematic unless it develops on the clean footprint area. If the footprint was corroded instead of clean, as shown in Figure 10 for a steel wheel that separated, then the rust clamped between the wheel and rotor is thinned by crushing from driving, leading to lost clamping force. There are ample warnings for wheel installers to clean wheel surfaces before re-installing a wheel to prevent corrosion and dirt from imperiling the clamping force. Cleaning the wheel interfaces is normally done with a wire brush just before installation.

Restoring the clamping force

Fortunately, there is a well-known remedy for lost clamping force. It is simply to re-torque the wheel nuts after a short amount of driving. There is no need to remove the wheels or even jack the vehicle off the ground – just using a torque wrench to apply the manufacturer’s specified torque to each wheel nut after a short amount of driving will normally cure any loss of clamping force.

Re-torqueing works because the thinning rate can be high early in the life of the wheel components that are clamped together. Once some thinning has happened, the wheels will securely seat themselves once the clamping force is restored by re-torqueing. Many vehicle manufacturers and wheel or tire installers recommend the re-torqueing procedure take place after the first 15 to 500 miles of driving following a wheel installation. Some wheel or tires installers have customers acknowledge that a re-torque is needed by having them initial the requirement on their invoice.