Thread locker on wheel bolts

[Jembo]

Interested to learn people’s thoughts on using thread locker (TL) on wheel bolts.

Been using it on some suspension components recently, then thought about wheel bolts.

WDYT?

[MikeyH]

All my motoring life, that’s almost 53 years and only ever used a wheel brace. Never had a wheel fall off. And out of interest how can someone use a torque wrench on a Knock on hub like MGB wire wheels have.

[axelleveau]

Funny how I actually go opposite and use anti-seize / copper grease on wheel bolts, as well as most screws I've dealt with doing suspension work recently I am sick and tired of rust and seized stuff

[smorris_12]

No, no, a thousand times no. Wheel nuts should have nothing on them: No copper grease and certainly not threadlock. The thread doesn't want to be bone dry as tightening torques mostly expect the thinnest film of oil from manufacturing and storage but slathering them in anything is Not A Good Idea. Properly tightened it won't come undone in the wrong place and will happily come undone at the correct one.

Sliding sideways into suspension components, I can't remember the last nuts/bolt that gave me grief coming undone (and I used to maintain a Discovery) but there are a few things I've learnt along the way:

* Clean the thread first. Get a wire brush and use it. Trying to wind a nut onto dirt will get progressively harder until the threads are completely inpacted with grot and it won't move either way.

* Penetrating oil. Get some of that in there. It's questionable how far it will penetrate, but it doesn't half allow threads to slide over each other more easily

* Good quality, well fitting sockets properly seated. If a nut is looking fragile, a six point socket will avoid ripping the corners off. I got an impact set for that reason long before I got a gun! Similarly, Allen and Torx fittings should have their little holes cleaned out so the bit has full contact.

* Leverage. Longer breaker bars make a hell of a difference. 24" minimum. I picked up a 1m 3/4" drive one on a bit of a whim and, when faced with a hub nut tightened to all of the Nm in the world, it just laughed and span it off. Up to that point I'd always shied away from anything with a torque spec above a wheel bolt!

* Heat. In my mind it's as much use as swearing at a stuck nut but it really works. My MAPP gas plumbing blow torch allowed me to shift an infamously hard to move tie rod end the other day with a spanner and a good heave.

Finally, do things up to an appropriate torque and it'll come apart nicely next time. For some reason mechanics treat all fixings as a test of their manliness and go beserk. Like the bad old days of tyre places that would go mad with their ugga-dugga gun until no force on earth would be able to undo it again.

[TheDan]

I put that it is totally wrong to use TL for wheel bolts... because it is.

Thread locker is designed to be used for situations where a bolt is not intended to be undone regularly (ie not for standard service intervals) and where the torque (plus angle) and application of load (driving events) generate a large amount of clamp load loss. There are bolts that use thread locker from factory, however these are almost always in locations that aren't intended to be changed in 60,000 miles or more.

[plenty]

Having sheared a locking wheel nut key recently trying to remove a wheel I shudder to think how much worse it could have been if there had been threadlock on that bolt.

[Pondrew]

Putting thread lock on wheel bolts is pointless and asking for trouble, as said above.

The whole point of tightening any threaded bolt or nut to a torque is to 'stretch' the thread, which will lock them better than any additional 'glue' can ever hope to. A purely mechanical 'lock' is always better.

Don't quite understand why anybody would think that a tightened wheel bolt, or nut, would ever come loose of it's own accord. It pretty much can't.

[enuff_zed]

I am always amused by the people that diligently insist on using a torque wrench but have never had it calibrated. They can be inaccurate by up to 25%. May as well resort to my method of ‘3 white knuckles’.

[Pondrew]

May as well resort to my method of ‘3 white knuckles’.

Quite glad you don't work on them noisy things that keep flying over my house anymore TBH.

[DMike]

I’ve been swapping winter and summer wheels on my cars for thirty plus years, on two cars, using a simple torque wrench and never had a single bolt loose or seize. 30 years x 2 twice a year x 2 cars on average x 4 wheels x 5 bolts = 2400 succesful bolts to none failed.

[TomK]

This thread feels like it was started 12 days late

[enuff_zed]

May as well resort to my method of ‘3 white knuckles’.

Quite glad you don't work on them noisy things that keep flying over my house anymore TBH.

Experience + common sense = safer than you can get from a theory book

[Chris_D]

TL would probably be a bad idea as well as being totally pointless on wheel bolts.
There is absolutely NOTHING wrong however with a dab of copper grease/anti-sieze, then tightened to the correct torque spec or even just by feel if you're confident/familiar enough.

After having experienced a couple of seized wheel bolts, requiring the use of the most ridiculously long breaker bar and the bottom-clenching fear that I was going to shear a wheel stud while trying to loosen them I will always use a dab of copper grease on wheel bolts as well as spark plugs.

[Pondrew]

There is absolutely NOTHING wrong however with a dab of copper grease/anti-sieze,

Oh there really is on wheel bolts matey.

[Chris_D]

There is absolutely NOTHING wrong however with a dab of copper grease/anti-sieze,

Oh there really is on wheel bolts matey.

Ah jesus mon, like what??
Greasy wheel bolts run in my family, from my granddad and probably his dad and granddad before him and there are no family anecdotes of anyone losing a wheel at speed or even getting a wobble on!
Before that I think wheels were made of wood by wheel-coopers!

The only maybe... and it's a BIG 'maybe' to using copper slip is the increased frequency that you should probably check you don't have one coming loose. Big deal.