Think about the last time when you got your tires changed. Do you remember the mechanic telling you to revisit them in a day or two and get your tires retorqued? Maybe you did, perhaps you didn’t. Is it even worth the hassle to come back to get your tires retorqued? Let’s find out.
You need to get your new tires retorqued. This needs to be done in either 1-2 days or driving 50-100 miles after the tire change. As the lug nuts might tighten or loosen during this duration due to typical stresses of the vehicle’s weight, nudges from bumps, and rotational effects of driving.
It is essential to get your tires retorqued. This article covers why you need to get your tires retorqued and what happens when you don’t retorque your tires.
Towards the end of the article, we have provided some essential tips on how you can get it done yourself.
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Why Do You Need To Retorque New Tires?
Whenever your tires get reinstalled, whether you have got new tires or just reinstalling old ones after some automation service, your mechanic makes sure that the lug nuts are tightened to the specified torque for that particular vehicle.
So the question arises that if the mechanic has already torqued the tires to the required amount, then why are you asked to come back after 1-2 days to get your tires retorqued?
Your tires need to get retorqued after 1-2 days or 50-100 miles of driving after the installation because the lug nuts might loosen or tighten during this duration. This can happen due to the stress of the vehicle’s weight, nudges from bumps, and rotational effects of driving.
As a whole, the reason why you need to get your tires retorqued are as follows:
- Stress on lug nuts due to vehicle’s weight.
- Nudges from bumps.
- Rotational effects of driving.
- Cycles of warming and cooling.
- A possibility of error from the mechanic while tightening the lug nuts.
- The unwanted dirt, sand, or grit particles between nuts and wheels might give “false torque” during the initial fitting.
I will give you two more reasons to retorque your tires:
- It’s usually free. Your mechanic will do it for free when you return after a day or two.
- It hardly takes 3-5 minutes to get it done.
Then, in the next section, we will see what may happen if we ignore the above possibilities and decide against to retorque the tires.
What happens if you don’t Retorque Tires?
So, now we know why new tires need to be retorqued, but you still don’t want to go out of the way to get it done. So, what might happen when you don’t retorque your new tires? Let’s see what an expert has to say about it.
“Worst case scenario is you’ll be driving down the road and then all of a sudden you’ll watch one of your tires pass you by while you’re trying or struggling for control of your car,”
Peter Muise, a service manager for Canadian Tire
This might happen when your lug nuts are too loose. Another case would be when your lug nuts are too tight, and it can damage bolt threads, break fasteners or warp the rotors or the hub.
Well, the probability of both these scenarios is very low and unlikely, but when it comes to your and your family’s safety, you don’t want to take any chances, do you?
How Often should you retorque tires?
We have covered this in the earlier sections of this article, but there are a few important details we are going to cover in this section.
You need to get your tires retorqued after 1-2 days or 50-100 miles of driving, whenever your tires or wheels get reinstalled, whether you have changed your tires
or the old ones get unmounted and reinstalled again while in servicing period.
It’s important to understand that retorquing is not needed to be done only when you have new tires. Still, there are numerous occasions where your mechanic needs to remove the tires for various other automation services.
Can You Retorque Your Own Tires?
You can always go to the car mechanic to retorque your tires. It will be free of cost and will take just a few minutes. But if you want to take the DIY route, you can do it pretty quickly. This section has covered what you need to retorque your tires and how to do it correctly.
Tools Required
1. Torque Wrench:
A torque wrench is a tool to apply a specific torque to a fastener, nuts, and bolts. In our case, we will use it to retorque the lug nuts.
I would like you to go through this great video on using a Torque Wrench.
| By ChrisFix2. Torque stick(optional):
If you are using an impact gun to reinstall your wheels and try to fit the wheel without the torque sticks, that may over-torque the lug nuts. We recommend using the torque sticks to apply the proper torque, which doesn’t allow the impact gun to over-torque the lug nuts.
Here is a video on using a torque stick with an impact gun.
Step-By-Step Process to Retorque your tires
1. Find out the specified torque for your vehicle
Each vehicle has different torque specified by the manufacturer. You can find it in your owner’s manual or google your car’s model and find out the correct torque for your vehicle.
2. Grab the correct size of the torque wrench
Torque is measured in pound-feet(lb-ft) or newton-meter(Nm) depending upon your region. And yes, pound-feet is the correct way to say it and not foot-pounds, but it doesn’t matter much.
Torque wrenches come in different sizes according to other requirements. So while grabbing the correct size, you need to look at two things; first is the size of the torque wrench, i.e., the stud (square on the top of your torque wrench), and another is the range of torque supports.
You will get it more clearly from the below table.
| Size | Available Torque Range(avg.) | Use |
|---|---|---|
| 1/4″ drive | 20-200 lbs-in | Smaller nuts and bolts |
| 3/8″ drive | 10-80 lbs-ft | for lug nuts of smaller wheels |
| 1/2″ drive | 20-200 lbs-ft | for lug nuts of regular and larger wheels |
3. Setting up the correct torque on the torque wrench
After grabbing the right size of the torque wrench, you need to set it up to detect the required torque of your vehicle. As shown in the video above by ChrisFix, you need to perform these three steps.
- Loosen the knob at the end for allowing the handle to freely move to set up the desired torque.
- Align the 0 line with the line of the required torque( in the video it’s aligned to 100 lbs-ft).
- Once it’s aligned properly just tightened the knob at the end, and now you are good to go.
4. Put the socket on the drive and start tightening the lug nuts until it clicks
Now everything is set up, and all you need to do is put the socket on the drive and begin tightening the lug nuts. Tighten it up until you hear a click, indicating that you have reached your desired torque. Now you can similarly move on to other nuts.
One thing to keep in mind will be the pattern in which you tighten your lug nuts. The lug nuts are tightened in a specific sequence to provide proper torque.
- If your wheel has 4 nuts, it should be tightened in a cross pattern, meaning if you have started with the top right lug nut, then the next lug nut that you should tighten is the bottom right. Repeat the same for the other two.
- Now, if your wheel has 5 or 10 lug nuts, it should be tightened in a star-shaped pattern.
Note that we are talking about a clicker-style torque wrench. There are also other types of torque wrenches, like a digital one that we won’t click and will have different indicators. However, I prefer the clicker one as it is fun to work with, and it’s pretty easy to use.
This is all you need to know about retorquing your tires. I hope this article was able to help you in understanding what retorquing is and why we recommend that you should retorque your new tires. If you still have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us and we will be happy to help you out.