Question to those of you changing out to other wheels. I was reading through some threads on the R53 that lug nuts are to be torqued at 88lbs. The R56 manual says 103lbs. Why the difference, and is this what everyone is doing? I bought a torque wrench when i put on my wheels and 103 lbs seems like a lot of force.

 

The R56 has larger diameter bolts so can take more torque. I think there were cases of bolts coming loose on the R53 which is probably why they changed it.

 

Hubby just had the tires off to paint the calipers. He had me check the Owners Manual before torquing the lug nuts back down. He raised an eyebrow at the 103 recommendation, but followed through as the manual advised. No problems.

 

After taking the car home the first day, I retorqued the lug bolts to 88lb-ft. All of them turned a little, which means they were torqued less than that. Makes me wonder...

 

Thanks for the replies. I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to warp something!

 

I had noticed the difference between the Torque recommendations on Saturday when I was painting my calipers. I torqued them to the specified 103lb-ft.

So, Mini S... what color did you/your hubby do?

 

I believe 88 lb-ft is for the R53. The R56 should have 103 lb-ft. That is what I have been using on both OEM wheels and CenterLine RPM polished aluminum wheels. With new wheels you torque them to spec., drive 40-100 miles, then torque them again.

 

Oh, sort of a semi-related question. It wasn't until I removed them that I realized that these were lug bolts and not lug nuts. My question is whether or not this is a universal thing these days, or just MINI?

Last time I cared enough about a car to do things myself was with my '68 GTO and those were lug-nuts. I do work on my motorcycle, but they don't have 'lug' anything on their wheels

**Edit, now that I think about it, some motorcycles actually do if they have a single-sided swingarm like some BMW's and Ducati's

 

All BMW's have lug bolts. I replace them every 3 years or so. No worries about broken studs. But it makes putting the wheel on a challenge when trying to align non-driving wheels. I hate using the wheel hole aligning tool.

 

Be sure you use a cross pattern when tightening them. Don't work around in a circle. I tighten in stages (a little at a time) so one isn't loose while another is at 103 lbs.

 

About 3 months ago I had a set of custom wheels installed on my MCS and the tire dealer said the lug bolts where to be torqued to 88 ft. lbs. Ten days later, I was going to work one morning doing about 75 MPH when the steering started shaking violently. I was on the freeway on the inside lane and started trying to work my way over to the shoulder to stop. I had just reached the shoulder and was doing about 20 MPH when the left front wheel came off and rolled out in the freeway where it was hit by another car. This creates a pucker factor of about 9.5!! Needless to say it messed up my day and the fender well, rotor and associated steering components. My car was towed back to the Tire dealer and the rest of the lug bolts where checked for tightness and all were about 1/8 turn loose. The tire dealer had my car repaired and replaced the lost wheel and recommended checking the torque weekly to 88 ft. lbs. This I did and ever week the lug bolts would be about 1/8 turn loose. Finally I purchased some Loc-tite thread sealant and sealed all of the lug bolts with this. Since then I have had no problems with the lug bolts working loose. Now I wonder if the lug bolts had been torqued to 103 ft. lbs. if this would have happened??

Lyn

 

Red, of course.

I have pics posted in two different threads about painting calipars.

 

OMG

That is a horrible story. I'm glad you came out of it ok. It sounds like tragedy was avoided for the vehicles that 'encountered' your wheel as well, yes?

I'm assuming you're using blue loctite and not red. If I were you, I'd still make sure the bolts are at 103lb-ft.

Goes to show how important proper tightening of fasteners is. (I grew up around wrench monkeys. )

 

BMW uses anti-seize compound on the lug bolts.

 

Your tire dealer should have told you to come back after 50 miles or so to tight the bolts again. Mine did. I went to a Goodyear Tire store to put on my custom wheels and they made sure to tell me to come back after 50 miles. I told them I will do it myself because I got a torque wrench. Sure enough, after about 100 miles, all the bolts went from 103 down to about 80.

 

I think you had two problems.
1. The bolts were under torqued. They should have been 103 lb-ft. The tire dealer wasn't aware that there was a change between R53 and R56. He used R53 specs.
2. You didn't re-tighten them after driving 40-100 miles (I've heard both distances from tire dealers).

I don't think you need loc-tite. I'd probably try to remove it. You need the proper torque.

 

After my car was repaired, the first thing I did was to go out and purchase a high quality torque wrench for checking the torque. I was a little bit concerned about getting the lug bolts off after installing the Loc-tite on them but I had no problems removing them. I used the Blue Loc-tite. I am going to remove them again and clean off the old Loc-tite and re-torque them to 103 ft. lbs. I will check them and see if they are working loose and if they are, I won't hesitate to use the Loc-tite again! I do not want to go through that experience again!!

Lyn

 

Just for the record, some later R53's (like mine) have the larger M14 lug bolts.

So regardless of car:

If you sport M12 lug bolts, 88 ft/lbs.
If you sport M14 lug bolts, 103 ft/lbs.

Always retorque after installing new wheels. Mine still need to be checked every week or so as the new wheels stretch and feel their way in.

 

The diameter of the bolt is a factor in keeping the same 'tightness' for different sized fastners. The larger the bolt, the more torque it will take to keep the same grip. When they went from 12mm to 14mm bolts, it makes sense that the torque requirements would go up.

Some '06 models have the 14mm bolts, so be careful to determine what size you have and set your torque appropriately. Post #18 has it right... 88ft-lbs for 12mm bolts and 103ft-lbs for 14mm bolts. Always check after 50-100 miles of installing. Checking every few weeks isn't a bad idea for agressively driven cars.

 

Wow, that's quite a large lug bolt. Is that for the R93?

 

Fixed.

 

When using copper based Never Seize, you are supposed to make a 20% reduction in torque. If your statement is correct ..... is the MINI torque spec for lug bolts with anti-seize compound? Is BMWs anti-seize compound of similar characteristics to Never Seize?

Not using the anti-seize would require an over 20% increase in torque if the two compounds had the same characteristics.

If you have to use blue loctite to keep the lugs tight .... something is wrong! It could be that the lug chamfer is not the absolutely perfect angle to match the wheel chamfer.

 

Hmmm... I've got a 2006 MCS and I rotate tires myself so I know my lug bolts are 14mm. I checked the owner's manual each time and torqued to 88 lbs each time. Did they change the lug bolt size and not update the info in the manual? Are my bolts under-torqued? Worry and nervousness levels rising as I contemplate the many months I've been driving like this.

 

The 103 lb.-ft. recommendation is in the manual with no mention of an anti-seize compound.

I find it odd that you would use less torque when adding a lubricant to the threads. I'm not saying you are wrong, but it does seem odd.

 

You could ask a service manager at your dealer to be sure, but I suspect they didn't print new R53 manuals for the lug bolt change. They should have included an addendum.