Idiots with impact guns!

[CR55]

Had to change brakes on the front of my daily driver tonight. Went to remove the lug nuts with a breaker bar and had to put my 200 lbs on the bar and pull on the wheel well to break them loose, all but one! Hooked up my impact gun but nothing would remove the last lug. The last time I had tires installed some knobhead with an impact evidently ran it until even King Kong couldn't get em loose! Had to grind down the lug but still couldn't get it loose. Finally had to drill holes around the lug into the mag..........desperately need the truck tomorrow! Aaaaaaaaahhhhhh, idiots with guns!

 

[42chevy]

Got to love air tools in the hands of untrained people.

 

[donsrods]

On some cars you can even warp the rotors by overtorqing them. It's getting worse all the time as every place is hiring minimum wage workers to fill skilled jobs.

Don

 

[Rat'l Trap]

twice I had cross-threaded studs when a bonehead at a local tire store (National Tire and Battery) started the lugs with the impact gun instead of by hand. I couldnt get either of them off, and both flats happened on the road, of course. Now I use a shop that does start them by hand and follows with the air gun, and torques by hand to finish a good installation. Job training is what's missing.

 

[sneakysnake]

Ive run into that too, Who carries a six foot cheater pipe with them just so you can fix a flat on the side of the road?lol

 

[lvin4jc]

It happens with oil drain plugs too, i've seen a few stripped out by oil change shops, same for the filter. It says 3/4 of a turn after the gasket makes contact but holy cow if they don't tighten that sucker as much as they can with the filter wrench, then let it heat and cool for 3,000 miles and try to get it back off! I'd be ticked about the stripped lugs though, that sucks.

 

[donsrods]

It happens with oil drain plugs too, i've seen a few stripped out by oil change shops, same for the filter. It says 3/4 of a turn after the gasket makes contact but holy cow if they don't tighten that sucker as much as they can with the filter wrench, then let it heat and cool for 3,000 miles and try to get it back off! I'd be ticked about the stripped lugs though, that sucks.

You are right. My ex took her car to one of the Jiffy Lube places and when she got home there was a puddle of oil under her car. They stripped out the drain plug and had to put one of those self tappers in to fix it. The bad part was, they didn't really acknowledge any responsibility for it, the just said those things happen.

Don

 

[Crossfire]

impact idiots.

Hate to say it but common sence is something that can"t be taught or trained.9 out of 10 drivers these days can"t even put a spare tire on there car and don"t even know where its at in the car.Had a guy at the swapmeet come up wearing a GM certified uniform and ask me what the tool I had on the table was for. It was a set of brake pliers.[S

 

[CR55]

Fortunately I was in my driveway, but I still had to ruin a perfectly good aluminum mag due to stupidity! I am extremely happy I didn't have a flat somewhere as I travel a lot of back stick roads on my job.

 

[timbo]

I run in to the same thing about once a week. Lugs too tight or too loose and drain plugs with the heads rounded off or the oil pans stripped thanks to the local squall-mart. They do pay for us to fix them.
Tim

 

[Shea Laking]

When I worked at Midas, the policy of the franchisee I worked for was "ONE licenced tech per shop." Everybody else, including the manager, was unlicenced. Just enough to meet Provincial laws.

We had two licenced techs there, so that each of us could cover the other's day off during the week (worked every Saturday). The two of us never got "fed" good work, mostly just stuck cleaning up the messes of the unlicenced guys. They always got the work "cause they finish the job faster." Actual reason was they were paid $4 less per hour, thus more of the door rate is profit in the owner's pocket.

Accidents can certainly happen, BUT it's not always the fault of the tech....In some cases, the environment breeds incautious or indifferent work habits. It's not really a "quality first" world anymore...

Regards,
Shea

 

[rainman]

All these things happen all the time to me, I'm one of those idiots that work as a service tech!! I'm supposed to be training a guy right now. They throw you somebody, of course you have no say in the hiring, say train him. Then start giving both of you so much work, you can't even watch them little own train them!!

Torque sticks should be mandatory for anyone changing wheels! But they don't supply them and they are expensive. From my perspective you wouldn't believe how many times a car comes in with the threads in the oil pan messed up, I always inform the owner, but who knows when it happened?

For me I work in a very reputable New Car Dealer, I'm sure it's very different at the quick lube places.

Just wanted to let you all know there,s always two sides to every story!!
Besides, why are you guy's not doing you're own maintenance? ha ha ha

 

[Willowbilly3]

It's not a new problem. Gomers with air guns have been over tightening lug nuts for decades. I use a father/son tire shop that tightens every wheel with a torque wrench.
And some of the newer impacts, like my Thundergun will destroy a wheel stud.

 

[HOT40ROD]

Something to think about. Every time that they are over torque they stretch. Once the bolt/Stud reaches it torque stretch yield they start to break.

 

[dark_horse]

I ran into the opposite problem. Helped a friend pick up a truck and trailer from the tire shop, 3 miles down the road 2 lug nuts fell off the pickup. 3 out of the 8 wheels on the pickup/trailer were only finger tight.

 

[26Troadster]

i use a nitrocat impact at work with 1000 foot lbs. a lug bolt just wont hold up to it so i use a lug wrench myself. we had a f550 that someone used one of these impacts on it ran for about a week before the first lugs broke (we ended up losing both sets of back wheels), we went and got it with the crane (it was at the end of the driveway) the lugs had been stretched pretty bad so no more nitrocat impacts on lug bolts. but you ever need a good impact they are made by aircat.

 

[rainman]

It's not a new problem. Gomers with air guns have been over tightening lug nuts for decades. I use a father/son tire shop that tightens every wheel with a torque wrench.
And some of the newer impacts, like my Thundergun will destroy a wheel stud.

The guy's I work with would argue against me, but I don't see why any impact gun needs tobe capable of 5 to 6 hundred foot pounds of torque.
I could see it if it were capable of having that much torque to loosen, with maybe half that much to tighten, but unless you work with heavy equipment, why do you need that??

Probably opened a can of worms here, I know how guy's are with there tools!!!

 

[King Herald]

On some cars you can even warp the rotors by overtorqing them. It's getting worse all the time as every place is hiring minimum wage workers to fill skilled jobs.

Don

Pajero 4x4s suffer cracked front discs from over tightening the lug nuts. I went to see one I was thinking of buying, armed with this knowledge. Sure enough it had several hairline cracks in both front discs. I pointed it out to the owner, who was suitably horrified.

A torque wrench is what you tighten lug nuts with, especially on modern type aluminum wheels.