Aluminium Wheel Nuts - Use Care - Lost a wheel at 60km/hr today - stripped bolts PICS

[jeffro ra28]

aluminum eh. its like using stainless with stainless, its fucked. Bolts and threads will strip. Lotsa lube is very important otherwise you might as well be putting sand on your threads.

[Ghetto-Spec .:bayka:.]

-- Politics --
Ok firstly, as far as i can tell, this is Tech & Conversions Kirsty and not Classifieds. I did consider General Car Talk sections, however based on the type of ppl that read Tech & Conversions i felt this more appropriate information for these readers. Sue me

Cheers for the kudos on Bodgepro, we do try. I just wish i took a photo of the car with the front right brake rotor jammed into the road...it was quite a sight and would look great on our website.

-- RIM issues --
The fake VOLK rims set me back $1200 with tyres and nuts. A bargain for a rim that looks that good. Tyres also seem excellent. Photo attached.

I understand that using aluminium you have to be careful not to strip or seize so consequently can't tighten as much as steel. It gets to a point where the aluminium bites into the steel too much and basically seizes. Torque wrench to check tension each week is a good idea. Unfortunately not everyone has one though. Absolutely no rattle gun for aluminium nuts.

Im gona chase up steel nuts this week. Will let you all know how i go. Its going to be expensive...

Cheers
Daniel

[toddw]

I recently sold my Porsche 911SC (house renovations-long story) anyhow they all have steel studs and alloy wheel nuts. It still had the original nuts, but in saying that it had the original forged Fuchs alloy wheels which are very good quality. The nuts were 26 years old and no problems. I always used never sieze and as Billl said I always used a torque wrench which I must say I never use on my other cars. I would suggest it my be a result of the Volk copies not the wheel nuts. Sports cars have been using them for many years.

Cheers

[oldcorollas]

-- Politics --
Ok firstly, as far as i can tell, this is Tech & Conversions Kirsty and not Classifieds. I did consider General Car Talk sections, however based on the type of ppl that read Tech & Conversions i felt this more appropriate information for these readers. Sue me

actually.. you put it in classifieds...
i reported it to be moved

as for the nuts.. aluminium will have a lower failure stress....and also is more ductile.. and also (maybe) more prone to fatigue.... but that also depends on the alloy and how it was treated...

in terms of benefits of aluminium wheel nuts.. there is not really anything going for them, except maybe? 20-30grams per nut.

you would kinda tend to think that copy wheels would come with copy nuts.. and there is a big difference between shit aluminium alloys and good ones (or even between good ones when not heat treated correctly)

where the nuts branded? or generic?

[allencr]

It's not that they're aluminum as such, just that the manufacturer of fake/imitation wheels could care less about the alloy they're made with, forged or not.

[orestes]

Aluminum wheel nuts?

I wouldn't trust something as necessary to ones own safety with something like aluminum wheel nuts. Basic understanding of metallurgy would suggest that alloy is not going to stand up to the wear and tear, I would more so suggest this was an accident waiting to happen. Common sense would tell me not to use aluminum wheel nuts over any period of time for the simple fact that aluminum is such a soft metal...

[Kirsty2520]

actually.. you put it in classifieds...
i reported it to be moved

And it's been moved again since I moved it yesterday morning.
It was in classified, I moved it to General and someone else moved it to here.
But man does it really matter which of those 2 sections it's in?? ( Tech or General I mean?)

Nothing is for sale so it doesn't belong n the classifieds.

[sidta23]

Nice corolla mate, i have 1992 EE90 corolla GL crescendo here in Ireland looks same as yours but has 1.3 liter engine no rear headrests but has air con all 4 electric windows, mirrors & sunroof has toyota premium sound system Cd player & tape deck standard, i love it was really cheap, what engine in yours?

[Joshstix]

-- RIM issues --
The fake VOLK rims set me back $1200 with tyres and nuts. A bargain for a rim that looks that good. Tyres also seem excellent. Photo attached.

This is my point they are cheap and nasty fake wheels and nuts. Genuine Volk nuts, which are forged and hard anodised, come in at around $200 per set. You got 4 wheels 4 tyres and a set of nuts for $1200. The chances of the nuts being as well made as genuine ones is rather slim.

I think the lesson to be learnt is don't use cheap immitation parts assuming they're as good as the real thing. Good quality alloy nuts should work well for a long time.

I'm not trying to have a dig at you for buying those wheels. I am having a digg at you for telling people not to use alloy nuts because your cheapies were no good though.

[merc-blue]

If you had read the warning on the pack, you cant sue bassicaly its a use at your own risk thing,
Proper forged allloy nuts torqued corrctly will not strip, as most people said,
99% of wheel nuts are overtightened, get a good proper torque wrench tighten them to manufactorers spec then you wil be able to tell on feel alone that in the past all your wheelnuts have been over tightened

[kingmick]

This is my point they are cheap and nasty fake wheels and nuts. Genuine Volk nuts, which are forged and hard anodised, come in at around $200 per set. You got 4 wheels 4 tyres and a set of nuts for $1200. The chances of the nuts being as well made as genuine ones is rather slim.

I think the lesson to be learnt is don't use cheap immitation parts assuming they're as good as the real thing. Good quality alloy nuts should work well for a long time.

I'm not trying to have a dig at you for buying those wheels. I am having a digg at you for telling people not to use alloy nuts because your cheapies were no good though.

^^This is exactly right!

I have never seen alloy nuts used on race cars except for a few light weight cars that didn't run slicks, there are many that do but if you think of the machining needed and the alloy quality needed $200 a set, is very cheap for what goes into them.
In sport sedans we make them out of steel and they are 100mm long{there is 25mm extra we use on the back side of the nuts for the nuts to bolt the tie-down plates too, for transport} with long studs and are done up to 65ponds with torque wrench and also use washers to lock in and spread the load, even with this setup you never get the car come in and don't have to nip them up a bit because of the heat .
On a street car with pot holes and wheel nuts that are not checked like a race car after every race, it is madness to even run high quality alloy nuts in my opinion.Especially if there done up with a rattle gun or by someone with just a tyre brace.
You are lucky it happened at lower speed and im glad it was lower speed.
Alloy nuts are not for the street.

P.S the threads are cleaned every time the nuts are off and copper anti-seize used to get and even torque.

[Ghetto-Spec .:bayka:.]

Thanks for the info on alloy wheel nuts, i didn't know they were well known for sports cars.

The idea of the thread was just to warn other cheapies like me, that may be running alloy nuts, to be careful. Sorry about the politics, I did actually think i posted in Tech & Conversions.

Ive also been advised that aluminium wheel nuts are highly illegal in Australia. The ones I got where definately generic and cheap.

Sidta23: 1990 EE92 Corolla? Got pics?
I did an engine conversion about 1yr ago upgraded to supercharged 4agze 1.6L. Just spent about $5k on a serious rebuild. I got some hell rare Corona Turbo twincam16 seats which also look cool

Daniel

[mrshin]

Well, be careful those wheels aren't too generic and cheap... one of them failing might not be especially pretty, either!

[RiceburnaGTV]

Geezus why the fuck are they made in the first place?

Does anyone really believe they have a purpose? On second thoughts the new mid range torque must be unbelieveable but do you substitute that for less traction?

Fuck checking your wheel nuts with a torque wrench,I think its laughable (on a street car)

I bet there is some toss out there somewhere in his build up spec sheet,
1995 Excel
Full droid body kit
19" spinners
WRX scoop on roof
Platinum plugs
No air box
Semi slicks
Aluminium wheel nutz yo

Not laughing at you dude but Im just dumbstruch anyone bothered to make them out of aluuu...

[merc-blue]

Riceburna,
Becasue there cheaper to manufactorer cheaply
And its "race spec. bro"

people build race cars with hollow titanium bolts and aircraft K nuts,
One of you cars has every cast bit in magnesium, everything else in alloy, every gram off anything cut out of it, infact we fabbed our own clutch slave cylinder out of alloy to save some weight, almost had a CF driveshaft done before they told us we couldnt have one, so we have this thiny chromoly one

I can understand why top end race cars would want to use alloy wheel nuts
and i also understand the lack of usefulness on street cars