Took me 6 years to figure out I was torquing lug nuts wrong

I used to always tighten lug nuts in a circle pattern. Like just go around the wheel one by one. An old tire guy at a shop in Nashville saw me doing it and asked if I like warped rotors. He showed me the star pattern and I felt like an idiot. Now I always torque in stages too, like 50 ft-lbs first then final. Has anyone else had a simple habit they did wrong for way too long?

2 comments

2 Comments

lucas_grant8327d agoMost Upvoted

lol yo I got a buddy who did the same thing but with spark plugs. He was cranking them down in a circle on his old F150 and wondered why it ran like crap after. Took him like two years and a blown plug to figure out he was cross threading half of them. His mechanic buddy finally showed him the right way and he felt so dumb. Honestly these little car habits are easy to mess up when nobody tells you.

singh.jessica27d ago

Did he ever figure out what the actual torque spec was supposed to be? Because I feel like most people just guess and crank it down, but there's a huge difference between what feels tight and what the manufacturer says. I always kept a little sticky note on the inside of my glovebox with the front and rear numbers for my old Tacoma just so I wouldn't forget.