Wheel Torque 150+ft lbs... yeah that's to spec!

[jbradle7]

I spent the afternoon changing the brakes on the front of my wife's car becuase the incompetents at Sears Auto Center in Alton IL don't know how to use a torque wrench when installing wheels... that was an expensive "free" tire rotation. Thanks Sears!

[Greg Nelson]

I spent the afternoon changing the brakes on the front of my wife's car becuase the incompetents at Sears Auto Center in Alton IL don't know how to use a torque wrench when installing wheels... that was an expensive "free" tire rotation. Thanks Sears!
Most A4 rims are torqued to 89-90 ft-lb.
If Sears torqued them to 150 ft-lb they may be damaging your rims.
Cheers[wrench]

[jbradle7]

Oh no, the worst part is when she went in (this was months ago by the way but I'm just now getting around to replacing the brakes) she specifically told them, as I instructed, please torque my wheels to 77 ft lbs. No problem, they even wrote the instructions on the work order. A few months later when I drove her car I noticed the front wheels shimmy when slowing from highway speeds... coincidence I presumed since she was so careful to ensure the auto center torqued her wheels correctly. Today when attempting to break the lugs loose, it required all of my weight on a 30" breaker bar. For shits and grins, I got out my torque wrench and dialed it up to 150 and tried to crack the next lug... no movement what so ever just the clicking of the torque wrench slipping as it passed the set torque value. All four wheels were like that so I called Sears and the manager assured me they always use torque sticks and besides the tire rotation was months ago and he could not be held accountable for work that was done that far back.

I find it interesting that rotors on a car with 40k highway miles, more than half the pad thickness remaining and virtually no wear on the rotors, somehow became warped. It must have been an act of God; the gorilla that installed the wheels had nothing to do with it I'm sure. My wife asked me what a torque stick was and after explaining what they were she tells me she watched them install the wheels and there was no brightly colored extension on the impact being used... she didn't tell me this until after I had already complained to Sears to no avail.

[Greg Nelson]

Hope you'll be staying away from Sears in the future[:D]
Cheers[wrench]