Lug nuts coming loose

[Mad Cow]

Recently I noticed that the lug nuts on the front passenger side wheel are coming loose within a few days of driving. No matter how much I tighten them they'll come loose and make a massive racket as the wheel wobbles. I've even tried jumping on the lug nut wrench to tighten them and they still come loose. How is this even possible? I have no idea what would cause this.

[MX3-4U2NV]

holy crap. that cant be good. i remember the fiancee took her car to get serviced, and a couple days later after hearing noises and feeling vibes, we discovered the lugs were loose.

thats dangerous stuff, if it keeps happening, maybe a mild lock tite can solve the problem for now. not the industrial strength stuff, just the hobby strength.

[Daninski]

Are the hole elongated (oval)?

[Mad Cow]

Yea I'm going to put some blue loctite on there soon. And what would the holes being oval change? If it's tight enough shouldn't the wheels not move at all anyway?

[tehbrookzorz]

I can only speculate here. If the nut does not have a good surface to seat against, it could cause them to back of quicker than normal.
I assume though that Daninski is asking if they are oblonged, because that is typically the result of driving with loose lugnuts.
Might be time to replace the nuts, sometimes the threads get worn with use (removal and replacement). Couldn't hurt to change the studs too.
Oh, and use a torque wrench. Re-torque after 50 km of driving.

[PATDIESEL]

Agreed ^
Get new lugs and new studs. You can grind a tad of the spindle down and get the studs in and out without removing the hub from the spindle. You'll see what I'm talking about when you go to remove the studs. Tighten the lugs properly... What would make you think jumping on the wrench is going to solve anything... If it is that bad, jumping is not going to help.
You should also check the wheel bearing and make sure it is in good shape. If you are getting vibration from the bearing it could be the cause of your lugs coming loose. You check it by jacking the car up, with the lugs tight, put one hand at the top of the wheel and one at the bottom. Now try to wiggle the wheel top to bottom. If it moves much at all you need a new wheel bearing and maybe a new hub too. If you are not confident with this, then let a shop check it for you.

[Daninski]

The holes in your wheels could be,,oblonged,,whatever and if thats the case new nuts or studs won't help. I advise you check the whells first. IMO 90ft.lbs is the wheel torque

[Mad Cow]

Well I got the wheels balanced earlier today and the guy said that the balancing was out of whack, maybe that was the problem. I'm going to see if that helped in a few days. The bearings feel really solid, but they do make some noise so I'm thinking of replacing them soon.

[Inodoro Pereyra]

Daninsky is right. As far as I know, there are 2 possible causes for the lug nuts coming loose: either the holes in your rims are deformed, or the rims are not sitting properly on the rotors. That can be because the rim flanges are deformed, or the rotors/hubs are not perfectly flat, or just because you have some dirt/rust/whatever between the mating surfaces.

Also, overtightening your nuts won't solve anything, and you can end damaging or breaking the studs. Tighten the nuts at 70 Lbs/ft.

Hope it helps.

[Ryan]

book says 80 AFAIK....

[Inodoro Pereyra]

book says 80 AFAIK....

Could be. I used to work at Wal Mart for a few months, at the TLE, and we used the Goodyear book for torque settings, which stated 70 for compacts, 80 for medium sized/full sized sedans and minivans, 100 for SUVs and small pickups and 120 for full sized pickups. But it wouldn't be surprising that a specific car had a different torque setting.

[Mooneggs]

I've been tightening mine to 90 for years... is that bad??

[_-Night-Shade-_]

LOL I just do it by hand till I can't turn any further...

[Inodoro Pereyra]

I've been tightening mine to 90 for years... is that bad??

Nah.
70, 80 or 90 doesn't really make much of a difference.
But when a 200 Lbs guy stands on the lug wrench, he's applying 200+ lbs/ft to the nuts/studs (being that the wrench is longer than a foot), or when you take it to a tire place and they adjust the nuts using a 350 Lbs/ft impact wrench, that's just begging for the studs to fail.

[Ryan]

Thats why they make torque bars for impacts. Anyone who just puts the gun straigh on there probably needs his studs to fail once to learn the lesson.