I was torquing lug nuts wrong for a solid decade

A customer came back with a vibration after a tire rotation I did. I checked my work and everything was tight, but the pattern was off. My boss watched me put a wheel back on and said, 'You're doing the star pattern, but you're not doing it right. You're just going around the circle.' He showed me to start at the top, then go directly across, not just to the next one. I've been doing it the lazy way since I started. Has anyone else had a basic skill they needed to unlearn?

2 comments

2 Comments

tessa_schmidt196d ago

So you were basically just snugging them in a circle before cranking them down? That's a wild thing to get away with for ten years without a wheel coming loose. Did your boss explain why the true star pattern matters, or was it just a "do it this way" kind of lesson?

angela8906d ago

Ever think about how a circle snug down might hide a warped brake rotor? If you pull them all tight on one side first, you can actually trap a slight wobble against the hub. The star pattern lets the rotor find its true flat spot as you go, so you're not fighting the car later. Saw a guy fight a brake pulse for weeks that turned out to be his own circle-tighten habit.