hellsbelle

My wheels were always checked and re-torqued as recommended after they were put back on. I thought that should go without saying because it's not only a standard part of vehicle maintenance but it's also basic common sense. The majority of the time they were either fine or just slightly off at various points in the first few hundred miles. Which is why I found it so concerning that they were coming loose after 3000-4000 miles the first few times. Then most recently all 5 on the front wheel being so loose I could remove them by hand after driving only 20 miles, that is not normal. When you go to re-torque you expect to find a loss of, what, 0-15lbs? Losing 60+lbs of torque in 20 miles is not typical. It's not impossible for that to happen in a car with no underlying problems, nothing is impossible, but I would rather take this as a warning to explore any potential problems that might be causing, or at least exacerbating, this instead of just saying "Oh well, re-torque and go on about life". These are the stock aluminum wheels from Subaru, the original ones as far as I know. Consistently torquing to the wrong specs that Subaru provided in error makes sense. But I'm going to call Subaru for the right ones because google is bringing back results ranging from 60 to 90. 1 Lucky Texan: Lol, I actually considered that someone might be loosening the lug nuts and after telling another mechanic what happened that was the first thing he said. But I can't think of anyone who would have the motivation or opportunity to do it. grossgary: I would love to avoid buying new wheels and I'm a little uncomfortable buying used ones. I'm afraid this may have caused them to become a bit rounded out, maybe not even enough to notice visually and using them would just repeat the process of weakening the studs. Do you think that's likely if it's not noticeable to the naked eye?

This is happening constantly on my 05 Legacy. I bought the car used in 2008, it was a trade in at an Audi dealership where my friend works. I know it's not a Subaru dealership but that's where my warranty came from. In 2009 I had to have a rear wheel bearing assembly replaced, I had no trouble with the lug nuts then. The wheels were off for tire and brake maintenance and replacement maybe 6-7 times over the next three and a half years and once for another wheel bearing assembly and I did not notice any problems then. Some of the work was done at the dealership and some at my friend's home garage, but this is the same guy who is a mechanic at that dealership so it's not as if he can't be trusted to change a set of brakes at home. Last summer I was driving along and heard a thumping that got progressively worse so I pulled over and all 5 lug nuts on the rear driver side were loose. The last time the wheels were off was for tire replacement maybe 3000-4000 miles prior to that. My first thought was that they didn't tighten them up enough. I put winter tires on around November. In February the same thing happened to the same wheel. My friend put the tires on last so I accused him of not torquing the lug nuts enough and he was sure that he torqued them according to specs so he looked at it and found that all 5 studs on that wheel needed replaced, he did that and checked the other 15 lugs nuts for tightness. Last week he replaced all four brakes and rotors for me and said that every wheel had loose lug nuts ranging from all 5 to only 2, but every wheel had lug nuts that were only hand tight at best even on the wheel with the new studs. I'm thinking that wheel itself might be damaged from this happening so much and maybe the holes have become bored out and that's causing stress on the studs, but I'm not a mechanic. He fixed everything that he could find wrong, except another wheel bearing that we have to order, the car has a healthy appetite for wheel bearing assemblies. At this point he is watching for this problem and put a lot of care into making sure it's as safe as he can get it. I drove to work and back, a total of 20 miles, and when I got home the front driver's side had all 5 lug nuts loose enough to spin with your fingers again and the rear wheels had a few that were loose enough to feel with the lug wrench. 20 miles after he went over these things with a fine tooth comb and the front wheels were never a problem before. Right now I guess I'm looking at getting 20 new studs, 20 new lug nuts, and possibly new wheels if I'm right about them being damaged like I think. And like someone else mentioned a torque wrench would probably be a wise investment. I love my car, really I do, but in the past I have had much lower quality vehicles worked on by people who aren't even hobby mechanics working with the bare minimum of tools, they certianly didn't have a way to measure the torque on the lug nuts, and this has never happend to any other car I've had. One of those lesser quality vehicles was a Cavalier with after market aluminum wheels, you guys say the aluminum is a little touchy, I still didn't have this problem and that car's wheels were off almost every 3-4 weeks for a variety of things that kept breaking.