........ just the other day I had a tire replaced. The mechanic threw the wheel back on the car and ran it up with his impact - "hammering" each lug. But... his gun is set very low, so the torque being applied to each lug is well under the torque spec. To hear it, it sounds like he's just hammering the lug nuts on. He grabbed the torque wrench when that was done and proceeded to get around a quarter turn (or maybe a bit less), on each lug nut...... ________________________________________________________________________
I bought two new front tires for my motor home at Sears in Fairfeld CA. I was worried when I saw the tech hammering the lug nuts on with an air gun. But then she went over the nuts with a torque wrench until the wrench clicked so I felt more at ease. After 400 miles of driving, the front end started wobbling. I discovered that five of the eight studs on one front wheel were broken and the flopping wheel was attached to only three studs.
I had just left the freeway when the wheel began wobbling. I was lucky to be driving on a city street. or the result would have been much much worse, for my motor home, for me, or for any one in my path. It was a very costly experience, involving a tow, one new wheel and sixteen new studs (only one broke on the other wheel but I had them all replaced).
Looking back, I realized that the technician had been too lazy to torque the lug nuts correctly, so she had greatly over-torqued them with the air hammer set too high, then applied the torque wrench only for show, to get the click without actually turning the already over-torqued nuts.
Now I torque everything myself. If a technician has to torque my wheels I stand and watch what he does. Then I re-torque them at home anyway.
Rodan.