How to Replace Lug Nuts

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Nate McCullough on behalf of Expert Village. In these clips we're going to talk about the proper way to inspect, remove, replace and maintenance your vehicle's shock absorbers. In this clip we're going to talk about the proper way to let your vehicle down off your floor jack and torque the lug nuts on your wheel. Ok, what I'm going to do is take the handle to my floor jack and engage it in the release screw. It's very important to release the pressure on your floor jack very slowly. If you give it a great big crank, the vehicle's going to come slamming down out of the air and possibly damage your jack or yourself. I'm going to give it just a little crank. So you can see the vehicle is coming down very slowly and very smoothly. Alright. It's a good idea to go ahead and snug the release screw back up because the jack is ready to be jacked up the next time you need to use it. Slip the handle back into the jacking location, lock it in and slide your floor jack out. Next, what you're going to want to do is torque your vehicle's lug nuts. We're going to use what they call the star pattern. We're going to make a five pointed star with our torquing procedure. We're going to torque the bottom one first. From there move to an upper one, from there over to here, from there over to here and from there over to here. As you can see what I did was draw a five pointed star. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. What that'll do is ensure that the vehicle's wheel is torqued down flat and true to the hub surface. This is a steel rim. The torque specification is approximately 80 foot pounds. Which is as hard as the average person can push with one hand. If your vehicle happens to have an aluminum rim on it, the torque specification is going to be 100 foot pounds. You're going to want to use two hands for it and reef it down good and tight. If you're unsure about how tight you should tighten them down, your local parts store will have a torque wrench available for you. On aluminum rims, after 25 miles of driving, you're going to want to stop and recheck the torque on the lug nuts. And that is the proper way to let your vehicle down off your jack and torque your lug nuts."