Getting lug nuts "gutentight" with no torque wrench

[DraftySquash]

So today I decided to bleed my brake fluid, which meant to the wheels came off the car at my garage for the first time. I only had a 90cm breaker bar with me and I noticed that some 1 or 2 lug nuts were a bit hard to get loose (from when the shop did the coilovers)

Now.... when it came to putting them back on, I didn't want to put all my weight and overtighten them. So I hand tightened as much as possible and then put normal pressure on the edge of the breaker bar and tightened it until I couldn't turn it anymore without putting in an effort.

Do you think that is tight enough? Or is that still too tight? 
They are tighter than finger tight. Last thing I want is to have them strip or warp sh*t. But hard times mean I can't just go down to Supercheap and get a torque wrench 🥺

[DraftySquash]

Also, if anyone has a torque wrench around Williams Landing area and can lend it to me for like 5 mins - I got 4 bottles of Furphy left and I’ll throw that in with a Happy meal 😂

[GTSBoy]

It's impossible to convey what it will feel like to get the right torque.

But you can develop a feel for it. A 900mm breaker bar is.....f**king huge. I only use a normal ~400mm one. But with 900mm being very nearly a metre, and the right torque being in the order of 100Nm, then you're going to need a bit over 100N of force, which is about 10 kg. So if you practice using the bar pulling up, instead of pushing down, then it will be about the same effort as lifting a 10kg bucket of water. That's what the pressure against your fingers should feel like.

Ish.

If you use a more typical length breaker, then it's about twice that. So a good 20 litre bucket, or a little bit more.

[MBS206]

13 minutes ago, GTSBoy said:

It's impossible to convey what it will feel like to get the right torque.

But you can develop a feel for it. A 900mm breaker bar is.....f**king huge. I only use a normal ~400mm one. But with 900mm being very nearly a metre, and the right torque being in the order of 100Nm, then you're going to need a bit over 100N of force, which is about 10 kg. So if you practice using the bar pulling up, instead of pushing down, then it will be about the same effort as lifting a 10kg bucket of water. That's what the pressure against your fingers should feel like.

Ish.

If you use a more typical length breaker, then it's about twice that. So a good 20 litre bucket, or a little bit more.

Or get a guy in his early fiftys to do it. A single good "oof" and about two cracks from his lower back is about the right tightness...

[DraftySquash]

On 15/03/2025 at 10:36 PM, GTSBoy said:

A 900mm breaker bar is.....f**king huge

and I thought size mattered 😝

At this point I may either pray to the Afterpay gods and get a torque wrench or attach a water bucket to the breaker bar. I appreciate the help though 🙏🏾

[Milkmun]

Slap it and say it ain't going no where, you'll be fine.

[Murray_Calavera]

On sale mate, $55. Sorted.

https://www.supercheapauto.com.au/p/toolpro-toolpro-torque-wrench-1-2-drive/565734.html?utm_content=paidsearch-pmax&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwytS-BhCKARIsAMGJyzqYEnwWmhWf6gxTST_Nz06Gd2VePgyvL7lh6PWrQtbjXTsI6TqSCLEaAuaCEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

[Duncan]

Yeah it is really until until you get a feel for it....then it is easy. Which is no use to you really.

I'd buy that torque wrench.

One thing from sure, many (most?) tyre shots overtighten the f**k out of wheel nuts, so don't worry if they were tighter when you tried to take them off compared to when you do them up. I've had some crazy tight ones come back from shops, quite apart from the potential damage to the thread, I can't see a smaller person taking the wheel off on the side of the road

[DraftySquash]

On 16/03/2025 at 1:50 AM, Murray_Calavera said:

On sale mate, $55. Sorted.

https://www.supercheapauto.com.au/p/toolpro-toolpro-torque-wrench-1-2-drive/565734.html?utm_content=paidsearch-pmax&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwytS-BhCKARIsAMGJyzqYEnwWmhWf6gxTST_Nz06Gd2VePgyvL7lh6PWrQtbjXTsI6TqSCLEaAuaCEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Yup, bought this bad boy and hopefully it will be ready to pickup today. Had $5 credit on top of it so it worked out really well!

[Kinkstaah]

I assume that Nissan give you a tiny little jack in the back of the car, with the spare. They expect a random human to be able to tighten a wheel up enough.

Then I assume a mid 40's person putting a wheel on with the equipment in the boot is considered 'okay' probably. Maybe. Someone had to think of this. I would wager wheels won't fall off from anybody using better equipment.

 

[joshuaho96]

On 3/15/2025 at 5:35 PM, Kinkstaah said:

I assume that Nissan give you a tiny little jack in the back of the car, with the spare. They expect a random human to be able to tighten a wheel up enough.

Then I assume a mid 40's person putting a wheel on with the equipment in the boot is considered 'okay' probably. Maybe. Someone had to think of this. I would wager wheels won't fall off from anybody using better equipment.

 

The OEM lug wrench you really need to put a lot of body weight on it to hit 75-80 ft-lbs compared to a torque wrench where I can knock it out no problem as a desk jockey that never hits the gym. The torque limit is your own body.

[GTSBoy]

51 minutes ago, joshuaho96 said:

The torque limit is your own body.

It's usually the pointy end of the wheel brace* digging into the palm of your hand.

* I refuse to use the term "lug wrench".

[MBS206]

2 hours ago, joshuaho96 said:

The OEM lug wrench you really need to put a lot of body weight on it to hit 75-80 ft-lbs compared to a torque wrench where I can knock it out no problem as a desk jockey that never hits the gym. The torque limit is your own body.

At 30cm long, you only need 80lbs... Which isn't hard to put that much weight in. Just start to stand on it, but not full force.

Even a light weight size 6 lady can do it.

If I stood on, I'd get them to about 190ft-lb... And all Id need to do is... Stand...

[The Bogan]

1 hour ago, MBS206 said:

At 30cm long, you only need 80lbs... Which isn't hard to put that much weight in. Just start to stand on it, but not full force.

Even a light weight size 6 lady can do it.

If I stood on, I'd get them to about 190ft-lb... And all Id need to do is... Stand...

I was once told, who it was I'm to old to remember, that the length of the OEM wheels brace supplied with a vehicle is designed long enough for a average person to apply enough torque to do up, and undo the wheel nuts to the specified torque 

What a average person is is anyone's guess though, i.e. average fat bastard, average knuckle head, average perfect sized human......like me

Unless of course, a tyre shop has ugga dugga'd them up to "torque to yeild/strip" specs, used cross threading as natures lock tight, or a big breaker bar was used to tighten them up to get some nice stretch in the poor old wheel studs

Me, I torque wheel nuts to 1 elbow joint click, lower torque settings are based of wrist clicks, higher torque settings are based of shoulder clunks, or total dislocation for anything that requires all of the torques