Hi everyone,

I just picked up a new to me 2015 IS 350 F-sport back on August 4th and I love this car. I can't wait to learn more about it and maybe see some of you all around Houston/Dallas/Austin.
Last week I took off my stock wheels to examine the underside of the car and had trouble torquing the lug nuts to 76 ft-lbs. My first issue was I split my locking lug nut in half. I was tightening it expecting to hear my torque wrench click, but it never did. I tightened the lock maybe another full rotation past what the other lug nuts needed to click, but then I stopped because I thought something was off. The key was stuck on, and when I popped it off I saw the lock was cracked in half. I ended up replacing it, but now I'm worried about attempting to tighten the lug nuts in the future because I don't want to break something again. Any ideas what I may be doing wrong? I've torqued down plenty of lug nuts before without issue and my torque wrench is brand new. I've never worked with the style of lug nuts on this car before that has a built in washer so maybe I'm doing something wrong. Any advice or comments would be appreciated.

Extra details:
All stock
Car was lifted when wheel was mounted and lug nuts were hand-tightened lugs in star pattern starting at the top position
Lowered car and torqued down to 76 ft-lbs
All rear lugs nut clicked at 76 ft-lbs
In the front 1 lug per wheel did not click and I stopped turning both to avoid snapping - I'm waiting until I figure what's going on before attempting to torque down or drive the car

 

Can you post a pic of what you broke? Could've been previously stressed from another installer.

Never had a problem torquing any healthy hardware on any car using healthy tools. I'd just replace what you broke and proceed as normal.

Just make sure you're using a healthy wrench not in need of any calibration

your fasteners are clean, threads are clean. no lube on any of the fasteners. should be good.

 

Maybe the wheel locks were cheap? And they could be been beaten up alot of places just set their impact wrench to 110lbs and dont care to torque things to spec.

But besides that may have an issue with the torque wrench. I have a pretty cheap torque wrench but it gets the job done.

But here's the thing....
if im turning slowly it wont always click at the right point, but will allow me to go past where I have it set. If I give it a good push it will click correctly with no issue. Make sense?
I've experienced this more with smaller torwue settings. Like a bolt with 15 lb torque spec if i turn too slowly it may allow me to go well beyond 15lb. If I turn swiftly it clicks when it should.

 

That makes sense. On my old 350Z I just cranked it. But with this car since I’ve only had it 3 weeks I was probably being a little too cautious. And even more since I broke something. I’ll try again and see if I get the same thing happening.

 

Also possible someone used an impact gun with a traditional 1/2" drive hardened socket. So you have hard tool on hard fastener. Impact tools should only be used with impact rated sockets which would shock your locks with a lot of force causing it to fatigue.. So who knows what history your poor locks had... get new ones anyway so you have the only key.

good chance they were doing that to all your fasteners btw, it might be a good idea to replace them all.

 

Good advice. I checked the carfax and also ran the VIN on Lexus service tracker website. They both show the car was regularly serviced at the dealership so I’m sure the lug nuts have only seen impact guns. I think I’ll but all new lugs and locks.

 

Seriously, and they get nutty with that impact.
I once got my car back and had to pull out my huge breaker bar and jump on the thing to get my lugs off. Next time I saw a shop doing I just walked into the garage and asked them to take it easy with that thing.

They do this on a lot of parts. Just over torque everywhere.

 

Honestly, breaking these lug nuts loose the first time was the same way. I thought I was going to tear off the stud or break my hand.

 

You can also ask that they install and torque them to spec by hand.

 

Yeah hand is best.. but sometimes you feel like a jerk for telling them how to do their job. If they use torque sticks.. i typically won't say anything. I'll just correct it myself as soon as i get home for peace of mind.

Also i haven't done this before but if you do request torque by hand, its a good idea to tip your guy. The reason they don't do manual tightening by default is cause this is the only work they do all day and it gets really tiring. imagine if they had to do every car manually. a torque stick will just help the day go by that much easier.

Some good reading

https://www.finepowertools.com/drills/impact-sockets/
https://www.floorjackshop.com/torque...do-i-need-one/

 

My thoughts exactly. Myself included when I worked in a shop hand tightening a 100 bolts that day got tiring and took time (=money). We did it anyways,, but to ask someone to change how they've done the job their way everyday isnt promising, true for any profession. . A tip is a grand idea.

When I used to pay for hand car washes it worked off of tips. Can't get picky and pay the same price everyone else does. I paid for the cheapest wash at the counter and they did it the way I requested while I paid the "premium" wash price via a tip to the guys doing it.

 

So last week I went out and tried to torque my lug nuts down. This time I cranked it and I got the torque wrench to click on each one. Being timid wasn’t allowing the torque wrench to click at 76 ft-lbs, but still allowed the lug nut to turn. So, I loosened up all my lugs then cranked them all down to 76. Everything is good now. Thanks for the help

 

Today I got my torque wrench and proceeded to try it out as was going to spray AT-205 on the boots anyway. Anyone got the feeling that 76ft-lbs doesn't seem like tight enough, coz when i try to loosen it, it came loose fairly easily. As my torque wrench didn't have ft-lbs marking, only Nm, I converted it to 104Nm as per google. Is this right? Out of the four wheels, one of the wheel was super over-tightened that I gave up removing the wheel as I was afraid of breaking the lugs.

 

You dare question the Google...lol! The conversion is correct though.
If you torque it down and loosen it right after it won't seem that tight because the nut and bolt have only been mated for a short time.
Left longer after driving, dissimilar metal chemical reaction, and any environmental corrosion, it will seem much harder to loosen.

For the one wheel that is overtightened, you might as well loosen the bolts not when you can control the situation rather on the side of the road when you have a flat and then you'll be really eff'ed.
It might seem like they are going to snap, but I think you'll be fine.

 

Hand torquing wins. I do mine gradually in three rounds to reach torque. 1st round just to about 50 ft/lbs. 2nd round to single beep (90% to torque), then finally to 76 ft lbs on final. Nice, and even, but definitely too time consuming for a commercial shop.

I tried a 65 ft lb ABN torque stick, but found it could drive the lugs up to over 76 ft lbs. It's better than no torque stick, but hand torquing with a digital is how I do it. Doing by hand also lets you feel how the lugs are initially seating. If they ever have a mushy engagement, the wheel isn't self aligning properly as the acorn tapers engage. Back them all off, reseat the wheel and try again. You can't feel that with a torque gun.

BTW after torquing things up over 125 ft lbs during suspension rebuild, the formerly "tough" 76 ft lbs on the lugs no longer seems like much effort. They're so "light" feeling now.