Front wheel lug nuts coming loose

mark the lugs and move the nuts around. if the same nuts come loose, replace them. if not, the lugs might be replaceable.
i wonder if the wheel could be bent, i've never heard of this.

 

Yeah this is a pretty good one I don't know what you have going on there that would loosen torqued wheel nuts seriously think about it whether there are mag type or the regular chamferred squeeze type whenever you call them just randomly coming loose I would think not unless there's a problem with the studs actually seeding in the splines of the hub then it could seem like they're coming loose but they actually weren't tightened until this spleen's were locked in place between the stud and the hub but this is a stretch let me tell you really I would have to see pictures of this because Toyota lug nuts are not clad or anything like that they're pretty solid and pretty stout I keep mine with anti seize. I can't imagine my love nuts coming loose on their own from somewhere around 70 ft lb and I know I've had them way looser than that before like in the 45 to 55 range pretty uneventful nothing ever happened that was a long time ago on Old Toyotas four lug 14-in wheels steel. Still no un loosening

 

Long shot but: if the hub faces are rusty, wire brush them well. Could be you're torquing down the wheel against a layer of rust. A thin layer of anti-seize is good on the hub faces too.

 

Original lug nuts, in good condition? Are the studs still tight in the hub?

I've never had lug nuts work loose in any vehicle, except when they were undertightened by a wide margin (i.e., only "finger-tight"). Long ago, all the lug nuts of one wheel did come loose in a friend's car while I was in it. We assumed that was because the tire shop forgot to tighten the nuts when he'd recently replaced the tire. We were lucky that that didn't cause a wreck.

 

First, three tight lug nuts will hold the wheel on without “clunking”. I submit none of the lugs were tight and or the wrong lug nuts were used.

If three lug nuts remained tight and torqued to 76 ft-lbs (not in-lbs) then the clunking is more likely from the drive axle cv joints, the struts or other front end parts. The hub bearing would have to be one of those $25 aftermarket units to be the cause.

I once saw a wheel come off a car and hit a motorcyclist. It was not pretty.

 

This absolutely can happen with a few loose lug nuts because the exact same thing happened to me. I found this page with a search.
Went to take off the wheel to look at the CV to see what was up and 3 of the nuts were already loose.
Torqued everything down and the clunk went away.
No idea how they came loose because I could have sworn I used a torque wrench on every nut when I rotated the tires. We will see if it happens again.

 

I turned out of the driveway with my father on an army base in Germany and our 124 Fiat spider and saw our front tire roll off into the road to the right We were turning to the left and of course the whole suspension dug into the pavement and we went nowhere was actually quite hilarious because the lug nuts were not tightened on the previous tire rotation or something that my father never performed any of this was done at Sears or somewhere back in the day. I've never used a lug wrench or tightening sticks to tighten my wheel nuts in my whole 70 years of living doesn't mean it's wrong to do or anything like that just haven't done it haven't had a wheel fall off or loose lug nuts either I use a DeWalt electric gun now so I don't have to have all these air tools and air hoses which I have but they've been pretty much decommissioned they're kind of expensive to keep running for a pretty much nothing.

 

You didn't feel the wheels wobble?? I forgot to torque down one tire on a rotation once, as soon as I got above 20 mph felt like a unbalanced tire. I got a phone call while working on that last tire. Now I just call people back, so I don't end up killing myself.
Tighten the tire in a star pattern but torque in a clock-wise or counter-clockwise pattern, so you don't end up missing any lug nuts. I always go around twice, counting 10 lug nuts per tire - so you always know you haven't missed any. I've never had a loose lug nut since I've been following this procedure for more than two decades.

Hope this helps...

 

Bought a car from a guy who didn't want his lug nuts to rust on so he used antiseeze on them. Just in case you were doing similar, I always install those nuts on dry studs.

My big box store sells tires and they always want you to come back for a wheel lug nut check in 100 miles or so. I have never had an issue, but there must be something to that.

 

It's been standard procedure with alloy wheels for at least 30 years.

At this point it's probably baked into the terms of insurance for any tire service shop.

 

I always loosen and retorque after any shop has touched lug bolts. Primarily to avoid over torque which is common.

 

Yep, Toyota aluminum wheel torque is quite low. I'm used to 80 ft/lbs or more.