Tightening up your wheel bolts with an impact wrench is a horendous idea...

Try using a torque wrench and the correct torque.

Seriously? Am i the only person that just stands on a wheelbrace?

Nope your not alone olly always a wheels brace or my breaker bar (no need to stand on the latter tho). I've never even seen anyone tighten a wheel nut with a torque wrench before

I'm super anal and even i wouldn't !?

I've used snap on impact guns on struts before and saved me hours of messing about!

Everything on my car gets torqued up using a torque wrench...

I hope its calibrated often then, if not you could find yourself in a situation where your under tightening every thing without even realising.

Used a snapon one on a regular basis, its comparable (if not better) to an airgun. no airline trailing everywhere and no noise from the compressor. Id fully reccomend getting 2 batteries though, nothing more annoying than getting halfway through torquing hub nuts up and it dying.

I hope its calibrated often then, if not you could find yourself in a situation where your under tightening every thing without even realising.

Or in the case of not using one, severely overtightening things. Swings and roundabouts surely?

Road wheel bolts on a 6N are 110Nm if I remember correctly, that really isn't a massive amount of torque when you've got a wrench with a fair amount of leverage to play with

Not really no, if you are silly enough to 'severely' over tighten a wheel nut it's apparent straight away when it threads in the hole. Where as if you under tighten all the wheel bolts due to relying on a out of calibration torque wrench, well you won't notice till your wheel falls off

And let's be fair here, your assuming that every one that doesn't use a torque wrench is going to go massively over the top while tightening a wheel bolt, you'd have to be very inexperienced to go swinging off the end of a breaker bar while trying to fit a wheel.

Personally I'd apply the same argument to using a wrongly calibrated torque wrench, if it's under-reading then it's no different to someone jumping up and down on a breaker bar. If you were putting enough force through the torque wrench to strip a thread or crack an alloy and not realise that something's wrong, then you'd have done the same with a brace.

I'd hope (probably putting too much faith in people here) that anyone with atleast a tiny amount of familiarisation with their car would be able to tell if the torque wrench was clicking way too early - assuming it's out enough to lead to a wheel falling off, rather than 1% or so.

But whatever works for you.. i tend to rely on the telescopic wheel brace in the boot as I cba to get the torque wrench out and have never cracked an alloy, similarly I often use the torque wrench and so far haven't had a wheel fall off!

Edited 27 April, 201115 yr by AMD_Man

I hope its calibrated often then, if not you could find yourself in a situation where your under tightening every thing without even realising.

You will be surprised how little they go out of calibration. Especially if you get a half decent one and treat it well. And if you wheel is loose you know about it before the wheel comes off due to the noise and/or vibration. Plus, you get to know the approximate correct force needed for nuts/bolts.

The problem I have with people using impact wrenches is that when you try undoing them with a normal wrench/spanner its dam near impossible, which is not helpful at the side of the road. Plus I have had a garage use an air gun to tighten up my locking wheel nut, which when I came to undo them meant the key snapped. And then there is stretching the bolts and damaging threads

thanks for replies, but some people seem to think i want to do up wheel bolts with it, i dont ahaha

I've got a snap-on one.. i always torque wheel nuts/bolts after doing them up with the gun. i check everything after doing up with the gun.

I've found that mine rattles everything off. theres not much it wont undo.. I'm yet to snap anything with it.

i recommend : )

(this may have already been or whatever... I'm too lazy to read through the thread..)

I use one of those exact ones at work now and then - good for smacking techscrews in and taking bolts out that haven't got an ounce or rust on, but they're not up to a challenge. I wouldn't bother buy any for car use that didn't have a half inch drive on.

Just a note for anyone who doesn't believe the posters above. Impact drivers are made for taking stuff apart, not putting it back together, so can not be relied upon to tighten anything properly. If you must use them for wheel bolts, just do a light tap until they're spun up, then torque them up by hand.

Yes, I know pikey tyre places use them - that's bad practice and why it says to check your wheel nuts within 50 miles on the receipt.

Yes, I know they buzz wheels back on in motorsport, but they're not using a £100 gun, they're using something far more accurate.

that first link is a driver also know as a rattler capernters use them, you need to look for impact wrench sealy do one cheap 18v 2.0amp battery quite cheap also clarke and if you want to spend £400 snap-on are the best of all

ebay is your best bet

tbf electric impact guns are'nt going to over tighten much unless its really small,

thers no need to tourque everything up not many mechanics go to the bother of tourqing much apart from cylinders heads etc

if you get to the point when you jumping on your breaker bar your over doing it hand tight and one push down with foot is plently tbf.

you dont even need to stand on a breaker. The wrench in the back of your car with your spare wheel is the correct length so its impossible for average joe to over tighten a wheel nut!