Carbuff2

I have never trusted the tire store technicians or the Lexus dealer to torque lug nuts/bolts properly. At our 5000 mile tire rotation, two wheels were mostly OK but the other two were not....both had under-torqued and widely varying tightness.

As a result, I always loosen, then tighten, the lug nuts with my own torque wrench when I get home from a tire/wheel service.

Regards the possibility of pad material transfer after a hard stop (end of freeway ramps, or after stopping at the bottom of a steep hill near our house), I developed 'muscle memory' to stop at least a car-length back in these situations...then creep along while waiting to go.

This happened a LOT more often with the company cars I used to drive, the shop would always use the cheapest pads when servicing those cars.

Just my 2Cents.

Eagleboy99

KalTire up here (one of the biggest) no longer asks you to come back for a re-torque.

Eagleboy99

Explain how overtightening lug nuts warps rotors.

Eagleboy99

I've used that brake bedding-in technique and it works.

jahnjva

I don't trust the techs to torque correctly either. I tighten with a torque stick rated to 80 ft/lbs, then use my torque wrench to set @ 103ft/lbs. Then after 50-100 miles I recheck with torque wrench.

autotech13

When over tightening lug nuts it will warp the rotor, when heat builds up it warps more. The reason is the thickness of todays rotors are a lot thinner then they used to be. Heavy braking will also do a number on the rotors, especially when going down hill, if you tend to brake a lot, or a mountain. The best thing is to buy quality rotors and pads, this should fix the problem.

Eagleboy99

Your explanation does not make sense. How does tightening a bolt that does not contact the rotor warp it? Maybe that was the case in the early days of discs where rotor/hub interfaces were combined, but today? How does heat build-up as a result of overtightening a bolt? I do get that unequal torque on bolts could create issues since under-tightened areas could be affected by friction heat, but if all the bolts are tightened equally...

Riding the brakes can build up heat for sure, but that has nothing to do with lug bolt torque.

Eagleboy99

Speaking of bedding in brakes... (I even do this for my disc-equipped bicycles as it makes a huge difference in mountain bikes especially) https://www.autozone.com/diy/brakes/bedding-brakes

Carbuff2

In theory, the bolts PULL on the rotor/hub/wheel contact area. Unequal torquing one side to the other could cause eventual warping, after several heat cycles. Might not be that important in practice.

"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is."


I thought that rotors had minimum thickness stamped or cast into the hubs. But, I just helped the teenage driver next door do brakes on his car, and there wasn't any indicator of minimum thickness on those, and he said that the previous owner had all work done at the dealer. (!)

I know that cheap "white box" aftermarket rotors are more prone to vibration than the good brands. I got in the habit of buying the Good Stuff when I was tracking our sports cars.

John89

It is very annoying that every time I go to dealer who does have good customer service, I always have to double check the work tech does. Perfect example came in for my 10K at 5K, and both my coolant levels were at low mark, zero top off and it was very obvious. However they filled up windshield fluid. I always check oil after the change for plugs and caps and levels. Never thought of the wheel lugs torque, but I always check that lug is tight by my hand bc seen that before too.

I do like going to dealer bc if they mess up at least it documented and on them for fix, still annoying to be paying a lot and worried about checking their work. Worst case this was master tech as he had his name over the lift with his years of service.

StefanoS

Costco tire center in my area always uses a torque wrench after they lower the vehicle down to the ground, as does any good tire shop. With regard to comments and hints to bedding in new brake pads, this is a critical procedure and I always follow this after changing out pads on any of my vehicles. It's good advice and can prevent issues down the road.

budwom

Based on my experience, a lot of "techs" are very inexperienced, as much as we'd like to think of them as grizzled veterans who know everything possible about your car...at perhaps $150/hour one might expect more, but I've seen some techs do some very idiotic things.

vudoonx

Looks like lug bolts are used now instead of lug nuts.

Carbuff2

See my Topic here:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...?highlight=lug

autotech13

Maybe that's the reason for the higher torque spec, they now use bolts instead of lug nuts.