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lug nut torque

24602 Views 20 Replies 11 Participants Last post by  VoltAP1
ANyone know the gen 2 recommended torque for lug nuts? Can't find it in the manual.
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Never, ever lubricate the lug nut bolt or nut threads. This will lead to over-torquing and there is no need for it. I rotate my own wheels every 7500 miles and have never had an issue removing the lug nuts. If you try to under-torque, you basically are guessing.

I have had the aluminum wheels seize to the steel hubs due to galvanic action, but never the lug nuts. So use the anti-seize (very lightly) where the back of the wheel mates to the steel hub, but not the lug nuts.
To put some technical detail on this, going from dry to lubricated threads drops your thread friction by approximately 30-40% on zinc/chrome coated fasteners. So for the same torque on the nut, you're putting 30-40% more preload force into the stud, which is typically far beyond the yield strength of the stud. Do this a couple of times, and SNAP goes the stud because it's been stretched and close to ultimate failure.

Never use anti-sieze on lug nuts! A little anti-sieze on the hub bore is fine if you're worried about the wheel corroding to the hub.
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