Fitting punishment for overtightened lugs?

Ideas:

• All doors on house bolted shut with overtightened bolts that will most likely need to be cut off. Including interior doors. Including the fridge. And the toilet seat.

• 1 weekend in a labor camp where victims of lug overtighteners take their cars to get their lugs removed and any other damage repaired. Labor camp sounds bad,,,better call it "community service."

• For repeat offenders: Wheels JB-welded to vehicles. Every vehicle they own. Car, bike, skateboard, lawnmower, all of them.

What are your suggestions?

Impact gun to their valuable bits.

Heat every over-torqued lug nut with a torch until cherry red. Throw at offender.

Here's a strange story. Last week I was working on a VW. Ran the lug BOLTS (God a HATE those!!!!!!) on with my impact on the lowest setting. Torqued them down to the spec (don't quote me, but I think it was about 86 or 89 ft. lbs?). The car sat in our lot for about a week. Yesterday I go to remove the wheel for something else and broke my Craftsman 1/2 drive breaker bar. The other 3 on that wheel were insanely tight as well. Huh? 'splain that one to me??

Gold plate their torque stick.

I would suggest that the broken/damged lug nuts/bolts be put on a necklace that the offender would have to wear everywhere he/she/it went for a week. (After he/she/it repaired them for free, of course.) Paint them a nice bright color like flourescent orange so everyone will ask what it's all about.

I still like the canings from Singapore

DrBoost wrote: Here's a strange story. Last week I was working on a VW. Ran the lug BOLTS (God a HATE those!!!!!!) on with my impact on the lowest setting. Torqued them down to the spec (don't quote me, but I think it was about 86 or 89 ft. lbs?). The car sat in our lot for about a week. Yesterday I go to remove the wheel for something else and broke my Craftsman 1/2 drive breaker bar. The other 3 on that wheel were insanely tight as well. Huh? 'splain that one to me??

did you oil the bolts before install?

had shop tighten one so bad on my truck many many years ago that they stripped the knurl out of the rotor. had a problem, went to remove it and the thing just spun.

that was the precise moment i started putting my vehicles up on stands and taking the wheels off before having tires put on. they cant screw lugnuts up if they are a mile away from the vehicle. at least i hope not, but these guys might have been able to.

my dad ended up taking care of it for me, he split the nut off the stud with the torch, without even hurting the paint on the wheel.

Upper Decker their toilet. Google that. Not suitable for viewing by anybody.

This thread reminds me of the scene in "The Mask" where Jim Carrey's character gets revenge on some unscrupulous grease monkeys with a pair of exhausts...

"HOLD ON TO YER LUGNUTS, IT'S TIIIMMMEEE FOR AN OVERHAUL!"

Appleseed wrote: Upper Decker their toilet. Google that. Not suitable for viewing by anybody.

I googled... i know what I'm doing...

its amazing how many shops don't know what a "torque stick" is or how to even use one. Oh yea don't forget about torque wrenches.

Torque Stix colonoscopy.

Appleseed wrote: Upper Decker their toilet. Google that. Not suitable for viewing by anybody.

or a Dry Docker, possibly an Upper Dry Docker.

How about forcing them to remove said over-tightened lug nuts with a factory lug wrench...in the dark...in the middle of nowhere...in a suit...while someone holds a lawn sprinkler over their head.

Go into the offender's fridge and pantry cupboard, and do up all their bottle caps extremely tight. Do them up so tight they have to replace all their condiments 'cos they just can't get the damn tops off.

Maybe accompany that with some of the other punishments mentioned.

My '67 BGT has knock off wheels - they wont even touch those. You have to take the wheel off and replace yourself. Probably because their impact guns wont fit!

slefain wrote: How about forcing them to remove said over-tightened lug nuts with a factory lug wrench...in the dark...in the middle of nowhere...in a suit...while someone holds a lawn sprinkler over their head.

I think we have a winner!

I asked a shop to make sure they tighten the nuts with a torque wrench. They did... ...after using the impact gun. I said to the mechanic " why the hell did you waste your time with the torque wrench after the impact gun?" He told me it was because I asked him to! What an idiot!

About a week later, I had a flat tire and went to change it. The lug nuts were on so tight I broke 3 of them taking them off! I checked the other wheels and had to replace 9 studs in total.

I fixed them myself because I didn't want those idiots to touch my car!

Had a customer bring me a 95 Tahoe last week that had been the victim of several alignment attempts at a sears auto. 4 lugs on one side and 1 on the other were cross threaded on and torqued to about 500 ft/lbs. Had to break the studs to get the wheels off. Wrote him up a very healthy bill to take back to sears.

Also, the reason it was pulling violently to the right was the missing control arm bolt. It was so bad that if you let go of the wheel while driving it would turn all the way to the steering stop. They gave it back to his wife like that, and the problem was evident even at parking lot speeds.

I remember having tyres put on one of my fiat spiders once. I had the salesman write on the slip to use a torque wrench only and specified the torque as fiat's use very soft bolts with fine threads that strip if you put them in by hand wrong.. by the time I got home (A mile away) I had lost three of the bolts as all they did was hand tighten them

gimpstang wrote:

DrBoost wrote: Here's a strange story. Last week I was working on a VW. Ran the lug BOLTS (God a HATE those!!!!!!) on with my impact on the lowest setting. Torqued them down to the spec (don't quote me, but I think it was about 86 or 89 ft. lbs?). The car sat in our lot for about a week. Yesterday I go to remove the wheel for something else and broke my Craftsman 1/2 drive breaker bar. The other 3 on that wheel were insanely tight as well. Huh? 'splain that one to me??

did you oil the bolts before install?

Anti-sleeze every one!

slefain wrote: How about forcing them to remove said over-tightened lug nuts with a factory lug wrench...in the dark...in the middle of nowhere...in a suit...while someone holds a lawn sprinkler over their head.

WIN.

The worst I had was getting the spare rim for my car at the junkyard. 4 bolts off fine, but the last one I had to get on the breaker bar, all 200lbs of me and jump on the breaker to get it loose. Amazing stupidity!

I was thinking about a punishment and the only sensible one is "madmax" style. You chain the guys leg to the wheel to be removed. Give him a hack saw and a factory lug wrench. Start a fuel fire near the back of car, if the lugs are torqued correctly he walks away, if not a hell of a tough choice.

The chorus of a Celine Dion song in an endless loop played at full volume 'til suicidal feelings set in