gobridge

I hear it mentioned occasionally surronding putting on your wheels. Does using a torque wrench provide some tangible advantages over tightening by hand? If so, how come most tire places use the plain old air wrench?

bugbbq

but you can read how much ft/lbs your torquing.

BOOSTD

they're probably using a torque stick on that air wrench, which will limit how much torque is used. A torque wrench is more accurate; you set the desired torque and it will not tighten above that increment. I highly recommend using a torque WRENCH for wheels.

gobridge

assuming of course that it is tight enough so that my wheel won't go flying off!!!! Other than that, does this give some kind of performance advantage or other benefit?

geoff

Overtightening them can damage your wheels.

There is no performance advantage, sorry

BTW, most shops use an air wrench that is set to a certain setting which is close to what a torque wrench would give them. It's simply a matter of a torque wrench taking too much time for use in a shop.

Quicksilver-A4

1st, an air wrench can apply so much pressure that it can crack alloy wheels. I've seen a number of times where an air wrench was used and caused cracks to form between the lug holes (especially on uni-lug wheels). But not tightening them enough could be dangerous. Using a torque wrench is an easy way to be sure that you get them tight enough, but not too tight so it causes damage.

No performance benefit or anything though.

WYSIWYG

full tightening to make sure its flat on the hub

curyfury

I've also heard that overtorqueing those bolts can cause your rotors to warp. I don't know how true this is, but I've heard it somewhere. Also, notice how difficult it is to take off the wheel by hand after its been tightened too much?

WYSIWYG

you heard the truth about overtightening