Sorry for the noobish question Also can some 1 give me a good price for a nice torque wrench thank you and a link

 

well.. i use my foot so about half a bounce per lug.. after tight

 

Go to Sears and get a 1/2" drive click type.

 

I usually torque mine to 70 lb-ft. I use a Craftsman 1/2 drive click type.

 

The proper torque for your lug nuts is listed in the owners manual given as a range. Apparently tight is good enough, however I torque mine to 80 ft/lbs because thats where my tire installer recommended. This figure is also within the given range.

 

The Mazda service manual recommends 65-87 ft-lbs. However, in their service bulletin regarding a "ticking noise when turning", they state that the lugs should be torqued to 108 ft-lbs.

Here's the link for the above mentioned service bulletin:
http://www.finishlineperformance.com...02-002-04.html

More important than the actual number is: 1) torque in star sequence (same as going around the wheel every other lug at a time), and 2) torque all lugs to the same value.

A decent 1/2" drive click-type torque wrench can be bought at Sears or other tool dealer. One such tool is:
http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...id=00944595000

 

Since I have never heard this ticking, I'm sticking with the lower range.

rx8cited

 

thanks to those who took my concern seriously

 

if you read the tsb it says that the revised spec (108) should be used whenever taking the wheels off. thats a hell of a lot of torque, but if thats what mazda clearly states...

 

Yah! From the TSB under REPAIR PROCEDURE step 1 from TSB:
"Verify customer concern."

No ticking - no concerns here!

I wonder if Mazda follows higher wheel torque range for all customers or just ones that complain about the ticking since this is not a recall?

I'll have to ask next time I go in for service.

rx8cited

 

80

 

I hate to ask this, but since I don't know the answer:
what type of socket is required to mate up to the 1/2" drive torque wrench when torquing our wheels? TIA

 

Stock lug nuts and wheel lock require a standard 21mm socket.

rx8cited

 

Really? I thought it was 13/16". Well, I guess they're pretty close:
13/16" = 0.8125"
21mm = 0.8268"
only about 14mils different.

I use a deep, 6-point 13/16" socket. I like 6-point because it lessens the chance of rounding the lug. Depending on how deep the socket is that you buy, you might want to pick up a short 1-2" extension so that your wrench clears the fenders when torquing the lugs.

 

You're joking, right ? All nuts and bolts on the car are metric ............

rx8cited

 

Naw, not joking. When I started to rotate the tires last weekend, I grabbed by 13/16" socket out of pure habit. It fits perfectly (in fact, a little snugger than the 21mm would given that it is 14mils smaller). 13/16" is/was the lug size on at least 8 or 9 of my previous cars over the years...

 

well, 'cause this car is manufactured in japan with standard japanese fasteners, it's supposed to really be metric sizing for everything... but as you said, 0.014" isn't a huge difference, and if your 13/16ths is (really) well used, it probably squeezes on there ok.

 

At the risk repeating info already out there, always use a torque wrench on your wheels. Also, don't let anyone use an impact wrench to tighten your lug nuts unless it has the correct torque stick on it.

A torque stick is an extension that fits in-between the socket an the impact wrench. It prevents the impact wrench from tightening the lugs past a certain torque. It does that by flexing with each pulse of the impact wrench. At a certain torque, it's just going to twist back and forth absorbing the impact energy from the impact wrench.

Over tightening of wheel lug nuts can warp brake rotors, which is one of the factors that can result in that pulse we’ve all felt at one time or another through the brake, peddle.

Lastly, if they don't look like they know what they are doing, keep them and their impact wrench away from your car

 

Anytime I have work done that involves having the wheels removed I will loosen and re-torque the lugs by hand when I get home. I learned that lesson long ago.

 

ALL of my tools are well used! Just to check, I'll have to try every 13/16" socket I own to see if they all fit, or if it is only the "experienced" ones that fit ;-)

 

appreciate the info. Will have to see what I can find. First I need a torque wrench to begin with. It is interesting the metric sizing. I've done the same math thing and one would tend to think the standard size wouldn't fit because it'd be too small. For some odd reason one of my socket sets is missing 13/16 and I have 2 3/4 - probably a factory error. I measured the inside of the lug wrench and it came up real close to 21mm - maybe an interior size of 21.5mm.

 

Just set mine to 108 per the TSB when I rotated the tires this week.

The standard lug nuts each took over 150 ft-lbs to loosen so I had to use a breaker bar. The locking lugs were on so tight I had to use a 2 ft extension on the breaker bar. The factory or the port must be using pneumatics set way too high.

Everyone might want to break their lugs free and then torque properly otherwise the first time the wheels need to come off someone might mess them up.

 

Another important tip is to always remove your wheel lock lug nuts first and put them on last to minimize stressing / damaging them.

rx8cited