Took me 8 years to figure out I was torquing lug nuts with the wrong pattern

I used to just go around in a circle tightening lug nuts on every car I touched. Then I had a Ford F-150 come back with a warped rotor after I did a brake job last spring. The customer was furious and my boss had me watch him do the next one star pattern with a torque wrench. Turns out I'd been bending rotors and causing hub damage on probably 200 cars without connecting the dots. Anyone else learn basic stuff way later than they should admit?

2 comments

2 Comments

samw471d ago

Wait are people actually out here warping rotors just by tightening lugnuts in the wrong order? I've worked on cars for 15 years and never once used a torque wrench on lugs. I just trigger tighten with my impact gun in a circle and have never had a rotor warp or a wheel fall off. The star pattern thing might matter on race cars or maybe if youre using cheap thin rotors but on normal daily drivers the clamping force of the wheel itself holds everything flat. I think this is one of those internet mechanics myths that sounds good on paper but doesnt really play out in real garages.

fiona7371d ago

Same here man. I did the circle pattern for like 5 years on everything from Civics to old Suburbans and never had an issue that I could trace back to it. Then I got a set of aftermarket rotors on my personal car and after the second time I torqued them in a circle they started pulsing within a month. Switched to the star pattern on the next set and they've been smooth for two years now. The rotors are thicker on most daily drivers so I think they can handle a little uneven clamping but the cheap thin ones that come with most brake kits these days are way more sensitive. I still don't use a torque wrench on every lug but I always do the star pattern now even with my impact gun and it's been fine.