removing wheels : beginners advices please

[Hugh R]

The factory jack is flat out DANGEROUS!!! I may have missed it, but buy a jack pad from PP it goes in the hole where the jack goes. With the jack pad you won't crush oil lines A/C lines or eff up your sills. Well worth it. Plus all of the above.

[shrtshck]

Haven't seen this mentioned yet, I always break the lug nuts free before lifting the tire off the ground, just a 1/4 turn or so.
In a similar vein, when installing the wheel snug the nuts up when the car is jacked up, then apply the final torque (95 ft lbs if memory correct) when the car is back on the ground. As noted earlier tighten the lugs in a star pattern and use a torque wrench.

[will hung]

Originally Posted by Ronnie's.930

Okay, maybe I am just nitpicking about nothing, and certainly do not mean to offend, but to those that say they would not go near a 911 wheel nut with an impact gun, I ask why in the world not (and I am not talking about advising a novice mechanic with no air tool experience to use one)? An impact tool does absolutley no harm to the wheel nuts , aluminum or not, and is quick and easy to use. Maybe you are concerned about damaging the finish on the nuts? In my experience, this finish comes off if you even fart on it so this is really not a concern for me (I strip the finish off the aluminum ones and just leave them raw). . .

You are nitpicking. The factory recommends not using impact guns on aluminum lug nuts. Most manufactures say not to use impact guns on aluminum lug nuts. Most race tracks won't allow a car on track with aluminum lugs. And there is a reason for this. That reason is called fatigue fracture, which is a subject that is a little above the threads subject, removing wheels, but basically the action of an impact gun will cause little cracks to form. Steel is more resistant to it than aluminum. Once little cracks form, they begin to propagate. From there, they will catastrophically fail.

Now, the chances of that happening on a car that is driven on the street? Slim to nill, but Porsche and other manufactures have to protect themselves from law suits. So they way overprotect themselves with this recommendation. If you took 30+ year old lug nuts hammered them off and hammered them on with an impact gun regularly, while putting them through heat/cool cycles associated with racing; yes, they would fail. You said yourself, that you don't use the gun to fully tighten the lugs. Why is that? I've seen pics of lug nuts that have been tighten with impact guns that you can see the hexes are twisted.

It's just a good practice to get into. I like peace of mind. It takes 5 extra minutes to loosen and tighten by hand. When I remove my wheels, I'm not trying to break 3 seconds in the pits, so I'd rather do it right.

[Dublinoh]

Originally Posted by porwolf

I am somewhat surprised about the advice from so many here that the factory jack cannot be used to lift up the car to get the wheels off. I don't know how many times I have done just that. Either to change from summer to winter wheels or vise versa and to "rotate" tires (switch between front and back) on my older Porsches. Never had a problem with the jack. I always secured the wheels with both emergency brake and transmission in 1st gear. I suggest if you want to keep the car on the jack for longer times to put a secure pile of wood pieces under the jack receiver, just in case. To loosen the aluminum lug nuts I always used the tool that came with the car. Yes, there are better tools like special soft sockets, but the factory tool does fine and the wear on the lug nuts is minimal if you don't let it slip. All the other suggestions are, of course, a lot more professional and safer. Do that if you plan to go the "professional" route. But do tighten the nuts in the pattern of post No.13, that is important. If you don't have a torque wrench you can tighten the nuts kind of hand tight on the long arm of the tool and then give it a little extra twist until you feel a ratcheting by the nuts in their seats. Loosen the nuts ever so slightly when the car is still on the ground so you don't jerk the car to loosen the nuts. When you tighten them do so just hand tight while the car is jacked up, then lower it to the ground and do the final tightening. That is done best also with the wheels on the ground. It is not that difficult.

The base of the jack is very small and can sink into gravel or even hot asphalt. Also the stability forward or reverse is minimal, the jack receptacle can even twist. I think emergency jack is the best way to think of it, or maybe last resort jack. JMO

[DWeg1998]

This thread reminded me how scratched up my lug nuts are. What kind of paint do you recommend for them? Spray paint should do it I would guess. Any specific brand/color suggestions for durability and to get the flat, matte look correct. I don't want shiney black lug nuts on top of my matte black fuchs.