WTF is with tire places over-tightening lug nuts?

[dville_gt]

Took my car to Firestone for a new set of tires 2 or 3 months ago and went to take the tires off to replace struts and shocks. These suckers have to be on there @ 300+ft/lbs. I've managed to break 3 17mm sockets so far trying to get them off and only gotten 2 of them off. I can jump all day on the tire iron and they won't budge. Wouldn't that have been great to figure this out on the side of the road with a flat?

[80coupe]

going the right way ha!

[Dacotua]

Took my car to Firestone for a new set of tires 2 or 3 months ago and went to take the tires off to replace struts and shocks. These suckers have to be on there @ 300+ft/lbs. I've managed to break 3 17mm sockets so far trying to get them off and only gotten 2 of them off. I can jump all day on the tire iron and they won't budge. Wouldn't that have been great to figure this out on the side of the road with a flat?

I always WATCH them put the tires on. I tell them, NO IMPACTS.

If you don't watch them, they'll put them on with a impact and state that the extension is torque rated. (BULLSHIT).

I always go home and loosen the lugs, and put them on with my own torque wrench.

I trusted the tire stores once, ended up having to use a impact to get the lugs off. Never going to happen again.

[helosailor]

Mouth-breathing gorilla+impact that is not properly adjusted+gorilla doesn't know how/care to use properly=your pain.

[dville_gt]

this sucks. going to go buy a hardened 17mm impact socket and give that a go.

[helosailor]

I always WATCH them put the tires on. I tell them, NO IMPACTS.

If you don't watch them, they'll put them on with a impact and state that the extension is torque rated. (BULLSHIT).

I always go home and loosen the lugs, and put them on with my own torque wrench.

I trusted the tire stores once, ended up having to use a impact to get the lugs off. Never going to happen again.

That was one thing I liked about Super Shops (when they were around). We didn't even have impacts, and even if we did, I wouldn't have used them. All lug nuts were final torqued with a torque wrench.

[SSMAN]

Impact on = impact off. They do tend to over tighten them.

[CJ-95GT]

Slide a pipe on the tire iron to give you more leverage.

[80coupe]

Slide a pipe on the tire iron to give you more leverage.

x2 on breakover

[71chevellejohn]

Righty Tighty, Lefty Loosey!

[dville_gt]

Slide a pipe on the tire iron to give you more leverage.

thats how i keep breaking sockets!

[stevo]

I bent a four-way Friday trying to help someone on the side of the road, ended up having to drive the thing about 1/2 mile on the rim to get it to my house to use air tools to get the wheel off.

Stevo

[JimD]

Squirt em down with pb blaster, then impact wrench. Ive rung bunches of lug nuts off either frozen on or cross threaded, what i hate worse is a god damn rim stuck to the hub, i had to beat one off an old turd chevy with a sledge hammer. I put lugs on with impacts all the time, i do turn the gun down to position 2 tho.

[dville_gt]

Got them all off without any additional problems (other then 400ft/lbs of torque). On this car they are "lug bolts" instead of lug nuts. When each one finally let go they popped from being so damn tight. Going to call and bitch tomorrow, really pisses me off knowing that I'd have been screwed had I had a flat on the road. It took a 5ft pipe and me standing on it to get them to break loose!

[SC457A]

I use "torque sticks" with every wheel I put on a car. I have also compared the sticks with a torque wrench a few times. Usually it is within 10 ft-lbs for me. The key is to know the impact and the stick together and of course hope air pressure is the same....

I lose count of the number of times I can barely take a lug nut off due to being over tightened! Warped rotors anyone?