Spacers - how loose do lugs get before initial retorque?

[jaruss01]

Have 35mm borne spacers (high quality hub centric billet) installed a few weeks ago at dealer - torqued down to 100 lbs in star pattern for Sasquatch. Waited until around 75 miles to do the initial retorque at a Firestone. Per directions. From what I’ve read there is a break in period and you need to retorque for safety reasons. Then only need to retorque per oil change going forward.

I asked Firestone if anything loosened and they said all wheels were pretty good minus one. They said that one of the lugs on the spacers literally fell off and hit the floor when they removed the wheel. Now I’ve grown a conscience. It was unclear if any other lugs were loose on that wheel or if maybe the mechanic who did the initial install just forgot to torque down one lug. I find it hard to believe it would come completely loose.

No I did not use loctite since the directions, like bora are for the retorque after initial install in lieu of loctite.

thoughts? Are some lugs generally loose during the break in period thus the recommendation to retorque around 100 miles? My gut says that maybe they forgot to torque one lug on initial install since it’s not as if it were loose a quarter turn it was basically all the way loosened.

Like is this bad? Normal? Or isolated incident that isn’t possible unless the mechanic forgot to torque down that one lug.

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[LockedBronco]

Who installed the spacers you or dealer?

 

[Figmo]

Few years ago I was driving my Samurai home from a weekend of wheeling/camping. Tired and half hung over I was just tooling along on a long straight stretch of road kind of zoned out when some movement caught the corner of my eye. Looked like something small fell off the vehicle. I was half tempted to just ignore it figuring, “oh well, whatever it was it’s gone now - I’ll figure it out when I get home” but some little voice in my head said “maybe you should pull over an look around on the rig”. Good call.

Left front wheel had no lug nuts on it (it had aluminum spacers). Not just some missing. Not just all loose. But ZERO nuts. The only thing holding that wheel on was that it was cocked at an angle on the locking hub. First right turn I would have made after that and that wheel would have gone sailing off. Possibly going through somebody’s windshield.

Made it home by robbing Peter to pay Paul - stole one lug nut off the other three wheels and the spare.

Lesson learned? I’m now VERY mindful to at least do a visual inspection of my lugs every time I walk past any of my vehicles with spacers behind the wheels. And I re-torque them every oil change.

So yeah - it can happen. This has only happened to me once. And when I re-torque them I’ve yet to find another loose one. So I wouldn’t say “common” - but given the mission critical function of lug nuts definitely something to remain diligent about.

 

[jacknifetoaswan]

So, number one, go buy a torque wrench at Home Depot. It'll cost you like $75, and you'll have it forever. Torque your lugs any time you remove a wheel, then 100 miles later, then 300 miles after that. They can back off, and I've lost lugs on my Mustang before. It shouldn't happen, but it does. It generally happens because aluminum (wheels), and steel (lugs and studs), expand and contract at different rates due to heating and cooling.

Number two, you do NOT use thread locker on lugs. Ever. You can use anti-seize compound to ensure you don't end up with galling of the threads and that the lugs don't seize on the studs, but never ever use Loctite or other.

Also, any time your wheels are off, you should be verifying that the lugs on the spacers are properly torqued to spec. Then you install the wheels and torque the lugs.

JR

 

[jaruss01]

Dealer did initial install. Firestone did the retorquing. I was driving past Firestone 2 minutes ago and popped in to speak directly to mechanic to get the full story. He said every lug on the spacers was at or near 100 lbs with the exception of one lug that literally fell off. So I think I’m chalking it up to the dealer forgetting to torque down one lug on the initial install. The mechanic also said that one lug torqued right back down no problem so it wasn’t like it was stripped or something. That gives me a little more ease. Maybe I’ll go back in a month to take off the wheels and triple check.

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