[NA]Anti-seize on lugnuts?

MauleSkinner said:
It’s been in the owner’s manual of every vehicle I’ve owned for the last 25 years.
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You have heard the joke. Used to be the owners manual told you how to adjust the valves on your engine. Now they tell you not to drink the battery acid. :)

I live in the Northeast. We use that stuff on everything. This is what I look like after getting one small drop on my hands.

5ysDbAZ.jpg
 
mondtster said:
I wouldn’t put a lug nut or lug bolt on without anti seize. In the environment I live in they would never come off again without the use of a torch if the vehicle spent any time on the roads in the winter.

Your environment may be different; corrosion concerns may not be a part of daily life like they are in the upper Midwest. If that is the case, I’d be less inclined to worry about it.
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16 years in NEPA with everything from a 2004 f-150 to a 2016 jeep. NEVER EVER EVER EVER had a lug issue.

Thats 16 years of salt, rain, mud you name it. On what planet are rusted lugs an issue?!?

Now brake rotors are another story. Them things rust and stick to the hub like a fat kid and soda pop.
 
I don’t put anti seize on my nuts, but i do use a torque wrench. After any tire dealer work, I drive around the corner, pull out the three foot breaker bar, crack them loose, and use the clicker to torque to spec. Then I know they’re good.
 
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Put a bit of it or smear of grease between the aluminum rim and the steel behind it. I’ve had mine darn near weld to each other twice. I had all the nuts off and tire wouldn’t come off! Kicked it till exhausted. Only thing that worked was put em back on but not torqued and drove backward slammed brakes and forward once doing the same. Wouldn’t have been an option with a blowout
 
flyingbrit said:
I'd say that the white "heat sink compound" used to improve thermal conductivity between a transistor and a heat sink is right up there on the messy scale.
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:D

I had forgotten about that stuff, like most of my TTL life.
 
Winter is a grand old time, on this there are no if or buts.
 
I don’t want to get everyone all paranoid and maniacally checking their lugnuts this morning but when I finally did mine, the left side of the truck was way overtorqued, and the right side well undertorqued (tire shop initial install)
 
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Let'sgoflying! said:
I don’t want to get everyone all paranoid and manaically checking their lugnuts this morning but when I finally did mine, the left side of the truck was way overtorqued, and the right side well undertorqued (tire shop initial install)
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Hence me driving around the corner after leaving the tire shop, check it before their ham fisted work has a chance to FUBAR the vehicle. Also why OTHER than tire work I do all of my MX and repairs myself, I know it's done right.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
I don’t want to get everyone all paranoid and manaically checking their lugnuts this morning but when I finally did mine, the left side of the truck was way overtorqued, and the right side well undertorqued (tire shop initial install)
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But all the lug nuts were there?
Then that's better than some places...
 
Tire shops will tell you too your face that they will torque the lug nuts to the correct value. The request never seems to make it to the lug turner. I’ve watched the installers and they never seem to tighten the nuts in a star pattern. They just go in a circular pattern a couple times with a pneumatic impact driver and call it good. First thing I do when I get home is raise the vehicle and do the job properly. Also, unless the factory manual recommends lubrication, all fasteners go on dry.
 
I've seen them run the lug nuts (or wheel studs) on with an impact driver and torque stick. "Yes, of course we torque the fasteners properly"... Uh-huh. I have zero trust for torque sticks, especially when the tech lets the impact gun sit there and hammer on it for several seconds after the stud seats.
 
pfarber said:
16 years in NEPA with everything from a 2004 f-150 to a 2016 jeep. NEVER EVER EVER EVER had a lug issue.

Thats 16 years of salt, rain, mud you name it. On what planet are rusted lugs an issue?!?

Now brake rotors are another story. Them things rust and stick to the hub like a fat kid and soda pop.
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Do you use anti seize on your airplane spark plugs?

I use anti seize on EVERY lug nut on EVERY vehicle or piece of equipment I own. AND on my aircraft spark plugs.
 
Wagondriver said:
Do you use anti seize on your airplane spark plugs?

I use anti seize on EVERY lug nut on EVERY vehicle or piece of equipment I own. AND on my aircraft spark plugs.
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I use anti-seize on none of those things. The real head-scratcher is, I’ve never once had any of those things act like it needed anti-seize.

To be fair, I do use a little dab of thermal grease on the airplane spark plugs, because that’s what Rotax specifies.
 
Wagondriver said:
Do you use anti seize on your airplane spark plugs?

I use anti seize on EVERY lug nut on EVERY vehicle or piece of equipment I own. AND on my aircraft spark plugs.
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If the MM calls for it, do it.


The only thing the AS is preventing is the steel plug threads from galling the aluminum head threads. Not for rust prevention.

Aluminum is pretty 'sticky' than the lube prevents that.
 
I keep reading here on this site a lot of information that is contrary to what I've been taught. I guess to each his own. My training has served me well.

As a teenager, I was taught by my Dad to never ever use any type of anti-seize lubricant on any wheel lug nut. Wire brush the lugs if necessary to clean them up. He was a mechanic.

Thirty years ago, I was taught by my primary flight instructor, (in corn country) to never ever land in a corn field if you have other options. He had thousands and thousands of flight hours in small aircraft.

Many of those flying hours he flew pipeline and dusting. And yes, he put a couple of them down.

Luckily my only engine out, I found a hay field.
 
I've found that if a large group tells you to do something one way, and another large group says to do it the other way, the truth is that it really does not matter. Aircraft spark plug copper gasket positioning is a good example of this. With automobile wheel studs I will keep them dry as long as they are fairly new and the plating is still good to prevent rust. Once they start to rust though, out comes the anti-seize. All 32 wheel studs on the 60+ year old truck I used to own were treated this way. Never a problem with them breaking or loosening.
 
Wagondriver said:
Do you use anti seize on your airplane spark plugs?

I use anti seize on EVERY lug nut on EVERY vehicle or piece of equipment I own. AND on my aircraft spark plugs.
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Me too. I avoid the first three threads on the plugs. It started with the MGB I had. I had to lube the threads on the wheel hub or the spinners would get stuck. They gave you a big lead hammer for a reason.
 
Anti seize on wheel nuts is a much different affair from spark plugs. That wheel is rotating. The head is not, and there are no radial loads on the spark plug. The weight on the wheel nuts therefore also rotates, and it tends to try to loosen the nut in the same direction as wheel rotation. This is why many cars and light trucks once had left-hand threads on the left wheels. It was common on Chrysler and International vehicles, among others. Heavy trucks still use left-hand threads on the left wheels. The geometry of this is rather confusing, and I can't find an online animation of the principle, but it's real and it's there. Just imagine the load traveling clockwise around that nut as the wheel rotates counterclockwise, and see that any deformation of the wheel's tapered conical nut seal that happens during loading will create a tiny bit of slop that will act like an internal ring gear on a spur gear within it and it rotate that nut counterclockwise. So LH nuts on the left side will tend to tighten and stay that way. RH nuts on the RH side will also tighten and stay tight. Once RH nuts on the LH side work even a bit loose, things can come apart quickly.

Anti-seize will make it easier for those nuts to loosen, especially RH threaded nuts on the LH side of the vehicle.

There is just so much not obvious to most people. Like I said, I sold this stuff for nine years in the 1970s and learned quite a bit about why stuff was designed the way it was. I think I was a lot more curious than most folks, and did the research. There are a lot of myths about LH nuts, most involving the tiny inertia of the nut in a rapid deceleration. Nope. Not even close.
 
Dan Thomas said:
Anti seize on wheel nuts is a much different affair from spark plugs. That wheel is rotating. The head is not, and there are no radial loads on the spark plug. The weight on the wheel nuts therefore also rotates, and it tends to try to loosen the nut in the same direction as wheel rotation. This is why many cars and light trucks once had left-hand threads on the left wheels. It was common on Chrysler and International vehicles, among others. Heavy trucks still use left-hand threads on the left wheels. The geometry of this is rather confusing, and I can't find an online animation of the principle, but it's real and it's there. Just imagine the load traveling clockwise around that nut as the wheel rotates counterclockwise, and see that any deformation of the wheel's tapered conical nut seal that happens during loading will create a tiny bit of slop that will act like an internal ring gear on a spur gear within it and it rotate that nut counterclockwise. So LH nuts on the left side will tend to tighten and stay that way. RH nuts on the RH side will also tighten and stay tight. Once RH nuts on the LH side work even a bit loose, things can come apart quickly.
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Amen to this. The only times I've had a wheel get loose was with RH threads on the LH side. It seems disgraceful that manufacturers have discontinued the LH threads, presumably to save a few pennies at the expense of safety.
Contrary to the above, old British cars with Rudge-Whitworth pattern wire wheels had RH threads on the LH side and vice versa. I suppose this is because the nut/spinner is at the center of the wheel, not toward the outside.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Yeah I shouldn’t need it.
No one uses lugnuts anymore.
You will violate ___ rule or ___ warranty.
Just call the tire shop when you get a flat, ffs.
(Don’t you love how posting on public forums makes you anticipate the distracting answers first, lol.)

Ok-
2020 Tundra.
The dealer/tire shop always blindly airwrenches them on, to oh… 1500ft-lbs.
I need to know I can change a tire, some of the remote places I go.
I’m going to loosen, and appropriately re-tighten the nuts in anticipation of a tire change.
Anti-seize, or no?
I live in dusty, dry conditions.
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Good tire shops hand tighten so insist that your shop does. When I replace wheels I put oil on the threads and do not overtighten. I also carry a piece PVC pipe that will slip over the lug wrench for loosening just in case.
 
I figured with the good shops only handtightened, and the PVC idea that this was a joke.
 
With the old MG, I used to jack the car up, put the wrench on the garage floor, and lower the car on the jack. Worked great.
 
Snowmass said:
Yes, try it. Lacking this I have set the wrench handle horizontal and jumped on it.
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I've done that too! Now I have two steel cheater bars.Just used one replacing the starter in my truck.
 
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