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I need to remove my wheels in order to paint my rims.
Should I buy a torque wrench for re-installation, or will tightening by hand suffice?.
TY in advance for your input.
Please by a torque wrench if you are putting on rims.
To loose and after a few heat cycles, they might loosen more -- which could end very badly. To tight and you could damage studs or make it hard to get off when you need to (on the side of the road with a flat), and most importantly, uneven is very likely to cause brake shudder (and what feels like "warped" rotors, even if they aren't technically warped).
Is it possible you'll have no problems if you don't torque properly? Sure, but also very possible you'll be buying new rotors in 6 months...
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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A torque wrench is a good investment, and not very expensive. I bought my first in 1968 when I got my first car, and only replaced it a couple of years ago. Proper tightening of wheels is important to your safety and the reliability of the car.
Location: IN>Germany>ND>OH>TX>CA>Currently NoVa and a Vacation Lake House in PA
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It's super important. If you're working on cars to the point that you're removing the wheels, you need a torque wrench. If they are alloy wheels torque them again a couple of weeks later. I've seen wheels fly off of cars at speed from the wheels being improperly torqued.
Don't cheap out on this.
Also, if you're doing this fad of painting your wheels black, don't cheap out on that either. They'll be chipping and peeling in no time if you don't use a quality paint and prep them correctly. By quality I mean a two part paint that chemically cures preferably with a clear coat. Not some crappy aerosol paint.
Last edited by LakeLifePA; 12-28-2023 at 11:07 AM..
I haven't changed a tire on one of my vehicles in quite a few years, but over the many years I have owned automobiles, I have changed tires many times, especially during the winter when I used to put snow tires on the car and then remove them in the spring.
All of these times I've changed tires (probably several dozen times), I've never used an impact wrench. I always just installed the lug nuts by "feel". To me, that means using an ordinary tire tool and torquing the nuts to approximately 85% to 90% of my maximum strength. I would consider myself (at that time) to be of medium to medium-strong in strength for a man. I never had any problems with the nuts coming loose or anything else. Hope this helps.
I need to remove my wheels in order to paint my rims.
Should I buy a torque wrench for re-installation, or will tightening by hand suffice?.
TY in advance for your input.
As everyone says, buy a torque wrench. Can you loosen the bolts by hand? No? Then you better wrench them back on. Otherwise, you'll have some weird and unfortunate experiences.
I haven't changed a tire on one of my vehicles in quite a few years, but over the many years I have owned automobiles, I have changed tires many times, especially during the winter when I used to put snow tires on the car and then remove them in the spring.
All of these times I've changed tires (probably several dozen times), I've never used an impact wrench. I always just installed the lug nuts by "feel". To me, that means using an ordinary tire tool and torquing the nuts to approximately 85% to 90% of my maximum strength. I would consider myself (at that time) to be of medium to medium-strong in strength for a man. I never had any problems with the nuts coming loose or anything else. Hope this helps.
There's a difference between an impact wrench/driver and a torque wrench.
The torque wrench uses a ball detent and a spring in the head of the wrench that makes a click as soon as the pre-set torque is reached. The use of an air impact wrench will not provide this feedback and the applied torque is indefinite.
I need to remove my wheels in order to paint my rims.
Should I buy a torque wrench for re-installation, or will tightening by hand suffice?.
TY in advance for your input.
If you haven't done it before, or very infrequently, get a torque wrench.
Also, if you're doing this fad of painting your wheels black, don't cheap out on that either. They'll be chipping and peeling in no time if you don't use a quality paint. By quality I mean a two part paint that chemically cures preferably with a clear coat. Not some crappy aerosol paint.
I don't know. I rattle canned a set of steel rims and they looked pretty good for ten years. They are now starting to rust so they will need to be redone but I think I got my $25 worth. The real key to any paint job is proper prep before the paint goes on.
you dont " NEED " a torque wrench .. whatever lug removal tool comes in the trunk of your car is designed to do what you want to do .. but you do need to be familiar with what is tight and what is not tight ..
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