do you think that impact wrenches are bad for lug studs?

[john keyes]

I bought some new tires and though it was a PITA I jacked my truck up, removed the wheels and hauled them to the tire place so they wouldn't torque the everliving crap out of the lug nuts.  I've known so many people that suddenly had lug stud failure. I myself have gone to remove lug nuts with a 4 way and the sucker just fell out with have of the stud attached to it.....I even lightly oil the studs before putting the nuts back on. 

[Empty Quiver]

Properly done I don't see any real problem. I like to see a one size lighter torque bar used and then finally a torque wrench. The torque bar acts as a shock absorber and limits how tight the impact can get the nut.

Sadly it is not done correctly often enough. I will ask before the service what the shop procedures are. If you let them know you are concerned and are willing to shop elsewhere you might just get what you want.

[Ron 1]

 i use a impact for all kinds of things there is a dial on my impact to adjust the torque you just snug the lug nuts with the impact then finish tightening them with a torque wrench. my compressor has 125# pressure and walmart has tightened lugs with 150# and i could not get them loose. i used a breaker bar and a 4foot pipe to try to loosen and twisted off some of the studs  i took it back to walmart and they bought me all new studs but they could not change them i had to do it no one qualified to do the replacement.they can not tighten lug nuts properly but they can change oil  i hope they do not use a impact to loosen/tighten the drain plug
  rw

[mauser98us]

Yes if you just spin them all the way on at full speed. I use the impact to just get them snug,then hand torque the rest of the way.

[zoner]

when i buy tires i specify that i want the lug nuts tightened by hand and if they won't do it, i go someplace else. The impact gets the job done fast for them. But if overtightened and you have a flat out on the road two bad things could happen. One is that you won't be able to loosen the lug nuts to change a tire, and two is that you might snap the stud off trying to loosen lug nuts. Both of these things have happened to me and it leaves you needing help instead of just changing a tire and going on your way

[hillbill]

one of the main reasons to hand torque with a torque wrench is to keep fron warping the flimsy brake rotors they put on stuff now.oh and so your wife can get the lug nuts off to change the tire when your gone working a 100 mi away.i do all my own tire wheel swaps but if your worryed about the torque on yours just back them off one at a time and retighten to your liking after the shop get done with your car.

[Empty Quiver]

one of the main reasons to hand torque with a torque wrench is to keep fron warping the flimsy brake rotors they put on stuff now.

Ain't that the truth.

[Rex in OTZ]

I use anti seize and hand start the nuts a few turns to prevent cross threading, use a impact to draw em all evenly down and a final round of tigtening, I useally have problems with having to retourqe a day latter, the 4-way draws em up tight, studs should be tourqed as there in a shear load overtightening allows for easy breakage like pulling a rope tite to cut, after getting then as tight as they need to be any overtightening will lead to undue wear of lug stud holes in the rim and will cause stressfractures in the rolled threads of the studs, have seen lugnut threads stripped out as well.
Lugs are by nature are to be dry tourqed when lubeing you get a greater tourque value than the dry so set your tourque lighter.
Allot of shops carry an assortment of lug studs and will replace broken ones if they can,From a liability standpoint they would try to keep from breaking lugs, imagine a honda or subaru with 4 lugs one is busted by the shop abd tooling down the interstate one them other lugstuds breaks, donthing like a wheel comming off while sandwhiched between a couple semi's.

 in casset hubs thats a different story.

[SHOOTALL]

At one time in Va. only 2 studs could be replaced per hub. for safety reasons .

[Empty Quiver]

At one time in Va. only 2 studs could be replaced per hub. for safety reasons .

So you replace the hub? or wait a couple hours and replace a couple more till they are all replaced? Who was counting and are the studs marked with born on dates? That is some crazy rule I would expect to find in Cook County Il.

[bigbird09]

The correct way to do it with the impact is with torque sticks, but no one seems to use them.  At the place I use to work we did everything with the impact, expect on vehicles with aluminum wheels we would use the wrench on.

[bigbird09]

The correct way to do it with the impact is with torque sticks, but no one seems to use them.  At the place I use to work we did everything with the impact, expect on vehicles with aluminum wheels we would use the wrench on.  Usually it was better to hit them with the impact taken nuts off cause more often then not you'll break studs with a breaker bar.

[SHOOTALL]

At one time in Va. only 2 studs could be replaced per hub. for safety reasons .

So you replace the hub? or wait a couple hours and replace a couple more till they are all replaced? Who was counting and are the studs marked with born on dates? That is some crazy rule I would expect to find in Cook County Il.

Replace the hub. The State Police checked . I worked in a garage in the 70's for a while. 4 mos. while there the SP set up a few blocks down the road and pulled cars that we had just inspected and re checked them. They also set up across the street and watched us inspect/repair cars . I don't believe it would be hard to look at new vs. old studs and see the difference.