Bill S

Changed to winter wheels and tires today. So difficult to remove wheel bolts I had to use a three foot bar on the lug wrench to budge them, and when they broke free some of them made a loud, awful cracking noise. Bolts seem OK.

I always install lug nuts carefully to 90 ft-lbs torque, but dealer had wheels off since I did so for wet braking delay inspection by Audi engineer.

Question: can I assume that the dealer over-tightened the nuts, or is it possible that the nuts were correctly tightened but froze up since? I did notice some rust on some of them (which of course I removed with wire-brush before reinstalling).

I find it a little hard to believe that my usually very reputable dealer wouldn't have their power wrenches set correctly. On the other hand...

My concern, apart from possible damage from over-torquing, is of course that some dark, rainy night on the highway, without my big cheater bar, I'll be unable to remove a wheel when I need to.

I 've been advised NEVER to use anti-seize on the bolts, although I do use it on the hubs.

MikTip

I good thing to do is watch whom ever puts back on your wheels, watch them use a torque wrench, and torque each bolt to its required spec.

If you cannot, then redo them yourself later.

if ya want something done right..........

PSIGUY

I ask them to put a little anti-seize on before they remount wheels. I also re torque when I get home.