Gorilla Mechanics

I had been experiencing a lot of "Bounce" in the front end of my '90 525i and took it to the garage that does the repairs on the hospital vehicle, where I work. They graciously changed out the front strut cartridges and sent me on my way - only cost $250 for parts and labor. They mentioned that I would be needing brake pads soon and suggested that I had a week or so left on the old ones. Well, I'm not about to change struts. Did that twice before - my first and last time. But swapping out pads is no big thing.

So, today I jacked up the front and attempted to remove the wheel lug nuts. OEM lug wrench didn't budge the nuts. 3/8" breaker bar - with 3 foot pipe extension broke the 2" drive extension piece. Broke out the 1/2" breaker bar with the 3 foot pipe extension- broke two 6 point deep sockets. Got out my 150 ft-lbs torque wrench and pinned that needle breaking the lug nuts loose. By the way, the pads were less than 50% worn - they still had plenty of meat.

I don't know what I would have done if I had a flat on the road - or if the wife had the car. I intend to present the broken 3/8" pieces to the mechanic tomorrow morning and demand that he loosen all of the lung nuts and use a torque wrench to reset them to 80 ft-lbs. And, I want two o new sockets. Anyone else have a similar experience???

Paul R.
'

Most places that have impact wrenches tend to have them set way to high and this is the result. The other result is that the hub becomes distorted and pulsing can be felt in the brake pedal and sometimes the steering wheel. People always assume they have warped rotors(which don't exist by the way).

Whenever someone takes my wheels off; I immediately break them at home and retorgue them.

Yours must have been really on there to bust those sockets and tools!

Make em pay up :X

Quote
Rosie158
Anyone else have a similar experience???

I found a lug bolt broken off and the stub left in my front hub after a trip to the tire shop (I mean the same day too). They tried to deny that they did it, so they haven't seen me again. That was a huge mistake on their part since I have five vehicles that use four tires each.

John

Quote
Rosie158
I had been experiencing a lot of "Bounce" in the front end of my '90 525i and took it to the garage that does the repairs on the hospital vehicle, where I work. They graciously changed out the front strut cartridges and sent me on my way - only cost $250 for parts and labor. They mentioned that I would be needing brake pads soon and suggested that I had a week or so left on the old ones. Well, I'm not about to change struts. Did that twice before - my first and last time. But swapping out pads is no big thing.

So, today I jacked up the front and attempted to remove the wheel lug nuts. OEM lug wrench didn't budge the nuts. 3/8" breaker bar - with 3 foot pipe extension broke the 2" drive extension piece. Broke out the 1/2" breaker bar with the 3 foot pipe extension- broke two 6 point deep sockets. Got out my 150 ft-lbs torque wrench and pinned that needle breaking the lug nuts loose. By the way, the pads were less than 50% worn - they still had plenty of meat.

I don't know what I would have done if I had a flat on the road - or if the wife had the car. I intend to present the broken 3/8" pieces to the mechanic tomorrow morning and demand that he loosen all of the lung nuts and use a torque wrench to reset them to 80 ft-lbs. And, I want two o new sockets. Anyone else have a similar experience???

Hey Paul, very common problem, I hate it

Important rule: never ever use an impact wrench to tighten things! I've seen many threads gone bad by doing that.

Those over torqued bolts could have distorted the wheels too. I did that to myself once by lubricating the bolts a little too well and even the normal torque can deform the aluminum wheels.

Bob in Everett

Are wheels studs and nuts to hold on the wheels better?? i had a full set, was given to me when i installed on the ProKit at Ireland and it was great and then some other shop swapped out everything!!! and put me back to regular luguts, which seem fine.
they also removed my 5mm spacers in the front. sad part is, i don't know which shop it was and at this point know no one at any of my shops would own up to it. the wheels stay on, don't rub, and arent over-torqued. I can break them easy with the factory jackwrench anytime, so i don't complain.