To lube Car wheel nuts / Studs or not?

Question as above.

My old boy says every time to avoid them becoming seized, but a guys at work says never.

Copper slip on a alloywheel /hub stops the alloy sticking to the hub i always put a wee bit on the studs too.

Guy at work recons that if you lube them that you risk overtightening them or worse they can come loose.

Must admit I’d rather be able to get them off easily that deal with seized bolts.

Bit of copper slip on my wheel studs-good job too as the monkeys that fitted my last set of tyres did a double run round all the studs with the flippin impact gun!!
When I came to undo them and torque them up properly they were done up to over 200 lb/ft!!!!
And the so call professional fitter fitted short valves, glad I complained to their head office over their ‘premier fitting centre status’.
Blackcircles.com replied back very quickly to my bad feedback with details).
VRS autos in Coventry be ashamed, very ashamed!

“Must admit I’d rather be able to get them off easily that deal with seized bolts.”
totally agree

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=33033

As Jordie says. Always grease in the wheel hub faces too nothing worse than stuck at the roadside unable to remove a wheel. I’ve always greased the studs both cars, trucks and axles on motorbikes never had a problem with any coming loose.

I always put copperslip on every nut and bolt on my car, including wheel nuts. Never have one come loose.

If you use copper slip on wheel nut bear in mind you can actually overtighten the nut/bolts by nearly 30%

always grease metal on metal threads. over tightening? Isn’t that what torque wrenches are for?

Mrphil, this sounds interesting, care to elaborate? I’d be interested in the science behind your statement.

The recommended torque figures will be based on the fastening either being lubricated or not – if you follow the correct guidance then you cannot over tighten it.
If the fastening is intended to be used dry and you lubericate it then the actual torque applied can be much higher…

“The torque value is dependent on the friction produced by the threads and by the fastened material’s contact with both the fastener head and the associated nut. Moreover, this friction can be affected by the application of a lubricant or any plating (e.g. cadmium or zinc) applied to the threads, and the fastener’s standard defines whether the torque value is for dry or lubricated threading, as lubrication can reduce the torque value by 15% to 25%; lubricating a fastener designed to be torqued dry could overtighten it, which may damage threading or stretch the fastener beyond its elastic limit, thereby reducing its clamping ability.”

Torque values are pretty much always quoted for dry threads, the addition of lube will bring the required value down, difficult to give an exact figure but IIRC around 25% less

toys19 – Member
Mrphil, this sounds interesting, care to elaborate? I’d be interested in the science behind your statement.
POSTED 5 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

Have a read of Macavity’s post further up, the link in it explains the reasoning behind this.