That's a brilliant idea, if I do say so myself, lol: How many tire shops are going to rummage through the glove box for the owner's manual, greasy-thumb through it in search of the wheel lug nut torque?
Discount Tire here just pulls it up in their computer, where it's wrong, and never gets corrected no matter how many times I show them the manual.
In my experience at a multitude of tire shops, no matter what you may say or do, it is sort of like buying the first Fords, you can have any color you want, as long as it is black. At tire shops, you can tell them anything you want, but what you get is 78 ft lbs (if they hand torque at all) and 35 psi (242 kpa).
78 is likely close enough to 76 that it would not matter. I once had a car come back from an oil change and tire rotation with the lug nuts on so tight I had to stand on the end of a 2 ft breaker bar to remove them, and then it took a second or two for them to start moving Normally just pushing down on that bar will do it. I weigh around 135 lbs. No, I don't think they were torqued anywhere near 270 ft lbs, that would certainly have snapped them off, but I do think they were torqued so much that the lug nuts dug into the wheel so they were acting like lock nuts. Good thing this was discovered at home. Had there been a flat on the road no way I could have removed one of those wheels with the manufacturer supplied tools in the trunk.
Even 80 pounds (probably the closest torque stick) would be very close. 80 is common for compact to mid-size cars. CUV's, SUV's and truck will have higher torques.
For starters, those are 17". This is what we have. Toyota says 33/32 psi front/rear (in page 565 of the Owner's Manual): If you're missing Owner's Manual, even if you're not, the pdf version is very convenient, easier to search. For tire info, just search for something like "195/65". Toyota Tech Info is one site that has all the pdf manuals. I go with 34 psi all 'round.
Thank you for fast response. I don’t have a manual, 76 is easy to remember …..Bicentennial would be the prompt.
At 76 lbs your not going to get the lug off with the Pos factory lug wrench tool that comes with the car especially if the tires have been replaced by a tire shop. I always keep a 1/2 inch breaker bar with the correct socket and a long piece of EMT pipe to put over the end of the breaker bar in the trunk. Bought a cool LED emergency blinking cones kit that fold up in a small carry case. In my life the more I prepare for things to happen the less likely they will happen lol…
Good idea. Not sure how I got shunted over to tire pressures btw,.. As luck would have it the torque spec was in there too, lol.
If a "typical" tire shop installed the wheels then the lugs are likely a "wee bit more" than the spec'd 76 lb-ft when they use their nuclear-powered impact guns (always set to "obliterate"). Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
I think when-in-doubt, and IF they use a torque wrench, they’d give small-to-mid-size car lug nuts 80 ft/lb. Which works out.
All depends on the shop. I have seen a big chain where one guy appeared to have only one job. That was to go and look up specs on a chart then use a torque wrench to tighten the lugs. Then he went to the next bay and did it there- that's the only task I saw him do. On the other hand I occasionally see lugs that come off really hard and the conical end of the lugnut is stepped because it was brutally overtightened and "crushed" the tapered end. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
