Why does everyone freak out over alloy nuts?

Tumbles · Postby **Tumbles** » Wed Apr 09, 2014 1:53 am

I'm not talking about unknown Ebay nonsense, although I could understand fears about that with quality control and no guarantee, et cetera.

Moreso things like 949Racing 7075-T6 wheel nuts vs normal steel wheel nuts.

From what I can see, they're around the same price ($60 or so for the whole car) and 7075 has a higher tensile strength and yield strength.

Postby **Okibi** » Wed Apr 09, 2014 2:12 am

Reducing rotational mass

Postby **Okibi** » Wed Apr 09, 2014 2:17 am

Tumbles · Postby **Tumbles** » Wed Apr 09, 2014 2:30 am

Okibi wrote:Reducing rotational mass

Mmmm. I get that.

I meant moreso people freaking out the other way, and criticising aluminium/alloy wheel nuts.

Magpie · Postby **Magpie** » Wed Apr 09, 2014 5:24 am

Alloy wheel nuts need to avoid people with very large rattle guns as they can be twisted.

Nip them up then use a torque wrench to finish them off to the correct torque. Go for a drive then re-torque.

Lokiel · Postby **Lokiel** » Wed Apr 09, 2014 9:14 am

I'm so paranoid about my 949 wheelnuts that I never use the rattle gun to tighten them up, just hand tighten, first with hand alone, then by hand with long socket, then torque wrench. Apart from scratched paint, they still look brand new.

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emily_mx5 · Postby **emily_mx5** » Wed Apr 09, 2014 10:03 am

I have seen several eBay spec alloy nuts shear off. Huge hassle to get it off if that happens. Internal drive hex steel wheel nuts for me, no exceptions haha.

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manga_blue · Postby **manga_blue** » Wed Apr 09, 2014 11:08 am

Magpie wrote:Alloy wheel nuts need to avoid people with very large rattle guns as they can be twisted.

Nip them up then use a torque wrench to finish them off to the correct torque. Go for a drive then re-torque.

x2. I've used a set for years, no problems, on a car that gets its wheels changed every couple of weeks. They get torqued up to 70 ft lbs which is very light compared to what gorillas do with wheel braces or tyre jockeys do with rattle guns. Then they get re-torqued. After that they never move. The wheels have no damage from dozens (maybe hundreds :oops:

) of changes.

greenMachine · Postby **greenMachine** » Wed Apr 09, 2014 9:16 pm

My alloy nuts (949?) are rattle gunned up tight, then finished with a torque wrench. The rattle gun is a Bunnings house brand one (Ozito), 12v rechargeable - pretty good but not your ultra high torque air gun.

The wheel nuts are showing lots of wear and look ugly, but hey - is racecar!

On the other hand, my steel McGard nuts on the GM's RPF1s never see the rattle gun.

:mrgreen:

WASP · Postby **WASP** » Wed Apr 09, 2014 10:22 pm

I have several mates who race MX5s,circuit and Targa, they all use alloy nuts with out a problem

Apu · Postby **Apu** » Wed Apr 09, 2014 10:38 pm

You just need to be a whole lot more careful with alloy wheel nuts, that's all.

greenMachine · Postby **greenMachine** » Wed Apr 09, 2014 11:52 pm

Apu wrote:You just need to be a whole lot more careful with alloy wheel nuts, that's all.

No.

You may want to be more careful, especially if you are fussy about how your nuts look. Only if you are using a high torque air rattle gun, turned up high, might you have a problem. Or, you have bought some knock-off Chinese junk off ebay ... :roll:

Just my 2c.

:mrgreen:

Apu · Postby **Apu** » Thu Apr 10, 2014 7:02 am

I've seen brand name Japanese alloy nuts crack and strip...of course you can strip a steel nut but gee...got to be really clumsy.

Tumbles · Postby **Tumbles** » Thu Apr 10, 2014 9:44 am

A lot of people are really quick to dismiss alloy nuts and just be like "buy steel ones", so this thread reaction has me pleasantly surprised.

Mr nanotech · Postby **Mr nanotech** » Thu Apr 10, 2014 1:06 pm

I had some work ones that were so light the felt as though they were made of plastic. The reason I switched to steel was because the anodizing woul come off too easily on the light nuts. If I was too rough they would get very tiny chips in them.
I hate being so precious with my car, so I bought muteki steep nuts online. Though the anodizing on these is just as poor, they are rock solid and dont chip or scratch like the light alloy ones.
For me it was just a preference.

I will say that I would never ever leave the work nuts on when taking the car to a shop. I would slwaus put on a cheap set and replace them when I got the car home. Most mechanics and tyre shops wont care and just rattlegun them on until they bend or crack. You can't treat alloys like normsl wheel nuts.