 | Home > Wheels & Tyres > To grease my nuts or not to grease - and a surprise! |
 
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| BogMonster Member Since: 05 Feb 2008 Location: Stanley Posts: 400   
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Middle ground: a quick squirt of WD40 on the hub and the studs just to stop corrosion. The problem with engineers and factories is that they rarely build stuff with the intent of having to dismantle it at some point, or the convenience of the person doing it foremost in their mind. Thus every bolt in every vehicle is dry and every mechanic curses that at some point years later.
I have literally needed half an hour with a 14lb sledgehammer to get an alloy off a hub. It was funny at the time because it was the boss's car and we were doing it on a nice day with the tools to hand. Not so much if you're stuck somewhere you don't want to be. This was the hub stuck not the nuts but I have also seen people stuck by the roadside holding a rather broken wheelbrace who have been grateful to see a chap turn up with a 3ft bar. --- 2006 Defender 110 SW 300Tdi • 2011 Ford Ranger XLT crewcab • 2015 Defender 110 Station Wagon Utility TDCi |
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1st Dec 2020 8:40am |
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| Bluest Member Since: 23 Apr 2016 Location: Lancashire Posts: 4212  
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Been thinking about this, interesting. The wheel studs will have a pretty chunky safety factor built into them given the job they do, so I reckon a small increase in clamping force due to using copper grease or whatever won't be enough to do any damage. Especially given that most garages generally wazz wheel nuts up to a billion ftlbs with an air gun and that never seems to worry anyone.
A good test would be to thoroughly clean a stud and nut, tighten it up to the correct torque. Remove it. Apply your grease of choice. Re-torque to the same torque but see how many more degrees the nut goes. If it's not much, I wouldn't worry. What's the the thread pitch? 1.5mm or something. You wouldn't want the nut going much further than a few degrees. 2007 110 TDCi Station Wagon XS |
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1st Dec 2020 9:26am |
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| roel Member Since: 08 Aug 2009 Location: Lelystad Posts: 2039  
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I am allowed to put some letters behind my name too, but I never did and will never do.
I use multipurpose grease as it makes less mess then copper slip. On my D3 I used a torque wrench and put it on the normal torque and with grease it might have been a bit high. But have driven the D3 for 10 years and a little more then 100.000 Miles and changing the tyres from summer to winter I think I can say it was OK doing that. On my 90 I put some grease on when needed but not every time as the tires are changed regulary. As mine was build for farmers I don't believe that a torque wrench is needed. I make them up with the wrench by hand and give them a good snug. After my next drive I do a quick check and most off the time it is OK. I did this with this 90, my Camel and my 90 before that so I think that is good enough too. 
In the start I didn't use grease and I had a few times that the nuts were difficult to get loose so I started using grease. I never snapped a wheel stud yet (On a Land Rover).  Roel
1984 90 2.5 na Diesel - RR V8 (1994-2001) 1997 Camel Trophy Discovery 300TDI (2001-2009) 2005 G4 Discovery III 4.4 V8 (2008-2018) It's gone but it still hurts. 2003 90 Td5 (2009-now) |
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1st Dec 2020 10:56am |
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| blackwolf Member Since: 03 Nov 2009 Location: South West England Posts: 17414 
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It always amuses me how not-tight correctly torqued Landrover wheel nuts actually are, especially when you see hefty brutes struggling to inflict the maximum possible tightness on them.
Assuming for a moment that the studs are grade 10.9, then to tighten them to around 95% of yield stress would require a torque of around 335Nm (approx 225lbf-ft), assuming clean, lightly-lubricated, self-colour fasteners. The difference between this figure and the recommended torque for the wheel nuts speaks for itself, you'd have to do them up to well over twice the specified torque before you came even close to stretching the stud beyond its elastic limit. I am a little surprised at the consensus to grease that this thread has so far shown. I was expecting by now that the Fun Police would drop in with predictions of widespread destruction and mass extinction resulting from lubricated studs. |
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1st Dec 2020 11:15am |
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| jcw Member Since: 11 Sep 2016 Location: Gloucestershire Posts: 168 
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For me it’s a simple decision between achieving precisely the correct torque versus ease of undoing the nuts when required - on a Range Rover I managed to chip an expensive alloy when the nut I was trying to loosen suddenly cracked loose and the wrench slipped off
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1st Dec 2020 12:30pm |
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| I Like Old Skool Member Since: 23 Feb 2015 Location: Manchester Posts: 812 
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Another vote for grease on the studs here. Just a very light smear of regular bearing grease on the threads and wheel/nut interface, just the minimum possible otherwise you risk greasy patches and spin-off across the face of your wheel rim and also maybe at the rear where the brakes live (as a cyclist who uses disk brakes, any form of brake contamination is a huge problem, not so much on cars maybe but better safe than sorry).
As for torqueing LR wheel nuts, I must have sensitive arms as I can feel the nuts hit 'bottom' and know that another inch or two at the wheel brace end is enough. As said above, it used to really surprise me how un-tight factory wheel nut torque specs were when I first got a torque wrench. I reckon almost everybody not using a torque wrench exceeds the spec by a considerable amount. |
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2nd Dec 2020 11:28am |
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| ARC99 Member Since: 19 Feb 2013 Location: North Yorkshire Posts: 1831 
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Well my guesstimate of 250 ft/lbs was not far out not bad for a 70 year old. JCW........ I had a national tyre fitting service replace four wheels on my then two year old Disco when I asked them to replace one tyre and swap the others round, the fitter couldn't get the wheels over the hub correctly so to save time he would get one stud lined up ,use a windy gun to tighten it up then use the opposite two to pull the wheel on, one wheel went bang so loud everything stopped , I dashed out as I thought that the Disco had come off the jack to find the wheel had broken in three places and on closer inspection the other three were cracked. Don't make old people mad. We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to  us off.
Richard |
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2nd Dec 2020 11:43am |
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| llessur Member Since: 15 Nov 2011 Location: Hereford Posts: 151
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For what its worth I have always used a light smear of copper slip on the threads, and rear contact face of the wheel, ensuring no grease gets on the friction face or angled face (steel wheel) of the nut. I personally think the torque setting for Land Rover studs is relatively low in relation to the stud diameter, so even with the grease I torque to the factory settings. My other automotive passion are Lotus Elise's and whilst built to be as light as possible the wheel bolts are like pencils and DO snap on removal if you do not lubricate the threads, even when tightened to book torque settings. Just for the record I hate locking wheels nuts with a passion, and if you use them I hope you manage to remove them when you need to. Mind you if you ever have a problem with a locking nut don't bother with your dealer or tyre centre, the thieves round here can get them off in the dark without disturbing your sleep.
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2nd Dec 2020 9:06pm |
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| scotsstag Member Since: 17 Jun 2012 Location: D+G Posts: 534  
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Did they come good for the wheels ? 04' 90 Td5 CSW.. |
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5th Dec 2020 1:40pm |
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| Hanzo111 Member Since: 03 Jan 2017 Location: DC Posts: 19 
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Found this to be pretty comprehensive
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19th Jan 2021 2:24pm |
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| The Crab Botherer Member Since: 07 May 2020 Location: WIRRAL Posts: 56 
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I've never had a problem with my nuts getting stuck
 on my various Land Rovers that is, but if i don't apply copper grease to the wheel bolts on my VW T4, you cannot shift the front ones without a 6 foot scaff pole extension, seems to be worse on the driver's side. |
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19th Jan 2021 3:08pm |
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| Mo Murphy Member Since: 01 Jun 2008 Location: Letchworth Garden City, Herts Posts: 2235 
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I always use a smear of copperslip on mine.
Mo The Land Rover 90 - Many are called, few are chosen. 50 Shades of Pennine Grey |
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19th Jan 2021 8:01pm |
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