Hands up who have been stuck on the side of the road with a flat tyre and the wheel nuts done up so tight by some gorilla that even with the car in gear and the handbrake on, all you do is roll the car forward when you unsuccessfully try to get them undone

Imagine my shock when I had a slow leak fixed yesterday and while watching the workshop from the waiting room, I noticed that when they replaced the wheels onto every car being worked on, that they used a tension wrench to nip up the wheel nuts

I don't mind giving them a plug for their service - Goodyear Port Melbourne.

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Wow, I've never seen that, all I get is monkeys doing wheel nuts up to to silly numbers: I recently had a brake mob do my wheel nuts up to over 160 Nm, I just couldn't get them off, even with my rattle gun!

yeah bloke i use here oes the same .. rattle gun to get them off wheel brace and torque wrench to put them back on ..

Dom at north terrace tyres ... great mob

Beanie

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I am the son of the STIG

HOTBRICKS
http://hotbricks.org.au/

'65 NCF MINI.....
'69 MINIMATIC.... 9 year resto still on the go

yeah, my local independent tyre place does them with a torque wrench

a few years ago I had tyres put on the brick at a big chain, and the young bloke who did them up snapped a stud. I was watching when he did it and he hid it in his hand, went over to his boss and showed him. I wandered over and said don't worry about it, I have plenty of spares, but gave him a talking to...

It's extremely common mate every tyre place does them with the guns.

Feel your pain

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PrOuDlY aSkInG qUeStIoNs FoR uR aMuEsMeNt

My son's commode had a slow leak in one tyre so we decided to put the spare on.
Got 4 of the nuts off, bent the wheel wrench on the 5th one, and my 230ft/lb rattle gun gave up too.
I hate these gorillas and their rattle guns, they have NFI how tight the nuts/bolts are when they're finished.
I take my Mini down there, park outside and take my own wheels off & refit- stuff em!

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

After a couple of years they usually learn (by accident as they can't think) that if they leave the gun on "full" then they can get most nuts off (unless the previous gorilla had a bigger gun), then use the same setting to do them back up.

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Under the chain of responsibility laws the tyre service can get into a shed load of trouble when a wheel falls off a truck (and even a car).
Lots of fleet owners are insisting on the wheel nuts being torqued up to the proper tension. Now the good tyre places are doing it for all vehicles to cover their arse in case of a disaster.
At my work all heavy vehicles are supposed to be torqued to the proper tension (with a calibrated torque wrench) and then fitted with wheel nut indicators.

So did the monkey with the torque wrench actually set it to the right tension setting for a Mini? Or did he just use the same setting he uses on every other car that he does?

When you go to a tyre service tell them what you want them to do. You know they are going to use rattle gun unless you tell them not to.
If they use the rattle gun after you have told them not to tell them that you are not paying for the job.

Thats where i get my Formula R's from.

Usually i just take my wheels to them, or whoever is fitting them.

My last set from a Beau's i specifically said don't use a torque wrench (the knuckle heads don't normally undo then reset them for each job) so they let me tighten them by hand, i didn't really want a torque suitable for a commodore etc on my mini.

As a mechanic i have seen too many streched and broken studs.

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Dean Hutton's first car was a Mini.

Ive never seen anyone use a torque wrench.
Learn something new every day.

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2000 Holden Rodeo TD - The Daily
1998 JDM Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution V -The Weekender
1977 Leyland Mini 998cc, 1293cc in the works - The project
1977 Leyland Mini Van - Sold
1966 Morris Mini Deluxe - Sold
2004 MINI Cooper S Chilli - Sold

I have been using a torque wrench on wheel nuts on my race cars for about 20 years. I used to have people helping me with my race car and they would all over tighten the nuts with a wheel brace. It was damaging the nuts and wheels.

Just thinking about it I was using a torque wrench on other peoples races cars in the early 80s but that was on centre lock wheels on Ralt RT4s.

OK, so what is the correct torque for Mini wheel nuts?

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You're only supposed to blow the BLUDDY DOORS OFF!!

42 lb./ft.

Thanks.

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You're only supposed to blow the BLUDDY DOORS OFF!!

My daughter had her Mazda 3 serviced this morning and I noticed the Mazda dealership used a rattle gun fitted with a Torque Stick fitted to the gun when they replaced the wheels.