I was torquing lug nuts wrong for YEARS until a guy at a swap meet in Daytona pointed it out

I always did the star pattern by hand, then used my impact to finish. This older guy watched me do it on a buddy's car and said, 'Kid, you're pulling the wheel off the hub before it's seated.' He showed me to do the star pattern in three steps with a torque wrench, starting at 40 ft-lbs. The last click at spec seats it perfectly. I felt like an idiot. Anyone else have a basic habit they had to unlearn?

5 comments

5 Comments

kimr742mo ago

Wait, you used an impact wrench at the end?

jennifer8332mo ago

Saw a video where they said that can strip the threads real fast lol.

laura_schmidt8225d agoMost Upvoted

Ha! Yeah my buddy did that once. Borrowed his dad's impact gun for a simple brake job. Stripped three lug nuts before he figured it out. @rubyk26 is right, people forget there's a time for the fast stuff and a time to just use your hands.

rubyk262mo ago

Ugh, YES. It's like people have totally forgotten what a hand tool is for. I see this everywhere now, just grabbing the most powerful tool for the tiniest job. That need for SPEED just breaks stuff. It's not just tools, it's everything. We're all in such a rush we skip the basics and then wonder why things get wrecked.

spencer98125d ago

Come on though, that impact gun saved your buddy way more time than the five minutes it cost him to fix the stripped lugs. Speed is the whole point of having power tools, otherwise we'd all still be using screwdrivers and hammers for everything. Reality is most people are not professionals and a mild strip is a small price for getting the job done in half the time.