Wheel Tech

Lug Nuts and Lug Bolts

The lug nuts or lug bolts holding your rims to your car are very important when installing new rims. Most aftermarket wheels require different lug nuts or bolts than what was used on the original equipment wheels. Lug nuts and bolts have many different seats (where the nut touches the wheel). The 3 most common are acorn seat (conical), ball seat (radius), and flat. Also, the lug nuts or bolts are of different lengths and diameters. It is a good idea, when buying custom rims, to keep a set of the original equipment lug nuts or bolts in case you will need to use the factory spare tire, which must be installed with the OE hardware.

Tightening wheel lug nuts
- Check the studs, lug nuts or the bolts for damage.
- Jack up the car.
- Install lug nuts by hand.
- Lower the car and put the car in park and set the brake.
- Check torque specifications.
- Torque the wheel lug nuts in a star pattern. Tighten the nut opposite the last one you tightened in a cross pattern. After thitening all lugs, go back thru the pattern again with the torque wrench to ensure every one is tight evenly.