The best car tuning teams are the best because they understand the importance of every bit of detail from the lug nuts on the wheels to the overhaul engine upgrade. So while there are so many companies that tackle complete car makeovers if you are going to properly take care of your own car there are several things you need to know about lug nuts.
Of course understanding that every little bit of detail counts doesn’t mean spending a lot of time to learn about lug nuts but there are a couple of things you need to consider not the least of which is that the lug nut has more than one functionality. If you were to think about it right now you would probably just write it off as the set of fasteners that keep the wheel in place. And they do need to do a good job of that but the fact is that lug nuts have been used for a long time to protect cars from being stolen, and we have a special page just dealing with the best products in that market to do that, and also lug nuts are important in the way your wheels stand up to the test of time.
However the most important thing you need to know about the lug nut is that there is a specific lug not torque to be used when winding them up and even if you are just changing a flat on the side of the road you need to make sure that you don’t tighten them too much. The principle is that the lug nut creates pressure on the stud coming out of the wheel base so as to force the wheel into position. And out of fear of not losing a wheel during the drive some people tend to apply too much pressure and risk braking off the stud or even stressing the wheel base to the point where it will tear off while you are driving so you might end up with more than just a lost lug nut.
We have a our lug nut torque dedicated page if you need more information about that but the fact is that there are actually individual charts for cars that talk about the safe lug nut torque but a simple rule of the thumb on how much pressure to put while screwing on the lug nuts is that if you are a man you should use the maximum force you can apply with just your arm and the upper part of your body. If you are a woman you can go in so far as to use the force in one leg to tighten the lug nut but don’t put your entire body weight in the effort.
What to Consider When Buying Lug Nuts
As far as choosing the best lug nuts for your car there are two very important aspects you need to consider. First of all is the fact that one of the roles of the lug nut is to keep moisture away for the studs and from the wheel itself. There are two ways of doing that: you can either use closed cap lug nuts, which are specially designed lug nuts that follow the specific length of your studs and once they are they can protect the lug nut perfectly. The other way is to simply buy plastic caps for your existing, open ended lug nuts but the fact is that they don’t work as well and there is a good chance you will lose at least one of them within a year. So the best thing would be to buy closed end lug nuts and know that you are safe.
And the second thing you need to consider is that the lug nut’s business end is the sitting area. That is the very tip of the screw that touches the wheel. That’s where all that force that comes into play when you drive, particularly when you drive fast around corners. The longer the sitting area of the lug not is the better that force will be applied to a larger area of the wheel and, if you’ll remember your basic physics lessons, the safer your ride will be and your lug nuts will also enjoy a longer life.
Of course there is a third and most important aspect about lug nuts and that is the security they provide to your wheels, particularly if you have nice shinny chromes, but because we have a special locking log nuts page and we also touch on the subject on the Gorilla lug nuts page we are not going to tackle it here. Suffice to say that although most car manufacturers only use one locking log not you should consider using at least 3 per wheel because once those other 4 lug nuts are removed it is a piece of cake to brake off that security lug nut.