GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Ok I know on stock steel or stock alloy wheels the torque is 100 but I have my ICON gunmetal rims I will be installing as soon as the weather gets a bit better. Now I know the stock studs can snap from 110+ torque which I don't wanna do. But how tight do you guys torque your aftermarket rims without ruining the rim or having it pass you on the highway?

Perhaps check with the manufacturer?Though I wonder if wheels are like tires -- the torque specs (or in the case of tires, pressure spec) is set by the vehicle manufacturer, and not the manufacturer of the wheel/tire?

Quote, originally posted by Mavrik »Ok I know on stock steel or stock alloy wheels the torque is 100Actually the lug torque specs for the stock wheels is 76 ft. lbs. -- even my aftermarket 17" Millie Miglia's recommend the stock torque as well. I would recommend the same to help minimize snapping the stud unless they explicitly say differently.

So did anyone ever find out what the right torque #'s for the OEM alum rims are???Still never did hear a 100% answer.

76lb/ft is the recommended torque and I'm suprised no studs have snapped at 100lb/ft. That's 25% overtightened. I torque my Motegi rims to 76lb/ft as well. It's the torque rating of the stud not the wheel that counts.

76 100% cuz after i dropped my car the mechanic friend put the rims on at 90 and snapped a bolt.

76ft lbs IS correct... it's listed in the owners manual.

i do 100 ft/lbs..nothings ever happened, guess it's a different setup then the vibes..modt cars are set to 100 lbs

Thats why my friends dad torq'd it to 90, cuz the cavy's and other chevy's are at about 90-100. Toyota must use weaker metal for the studs.

I have mine on the vibe at 90 right now.......so far have never had a prob.....76 sounds like it would be to weak....the nuts would loosin up and fall off.

its not so much for the nuts as it is for the rotors. If you over do it on the amount you can ruin your rotors and brakes and throw the tire out of balence. my wife owns a 2000 cavalier and her owners manual suggests 100ft lbs for her tires. My 94 and my 04 cavaliers were the same @ 100ft lbs.They are also smaller tires. 14inch rims come stock on most cavliers and I suspect that is why the specs are different.I put my vibe at 67 and have yet to have a problem... and I have been rotating them every 3k.

yea..i can see that, about the whole braking issue, but i dont think it involves the size of the tire itself..cause my stock rims..and all sunfire stock rims are 15" and they're the same ft/lbs even with my 17" on i use the same ft/lbs, and i dont think it's the actual strength of the metal..cause a cars tire stud are all the same..some are longer and shorter..but thats the only difference

this was explained to me once when i called American Classic with a question about my wheels...the required torque is determined by the pitch on the threads...some cars use different thread counts than others and therefore require a different amount of torque to achieve the required force to hold the whole assembly together properly.Interesting side note: i don't own a torque wrench and just use 'feel'. I had to tighten a couple of nuts the other day when i checked my wheels and i think i've slightly over tightened at least one of them as a drive on the highway right after showed a slight vibration at 110km/h. A re-adjust fixed it.I think i'll go buy a torque wrench tomorrow just to give me a better reference!

yea..i'd buy a torque wrench but they're expensive and i wouldnt use it all that much since i do all my stuff now at work with the techs air tools and such..good half decent ones from canadian tire for the 1/2 drive is like $100 or something

Had the tires rotated a couple of months ago as part of a routine oil change. The tech came in asking for my key to my 'locking lug nuts"? I never had locks on our car. Turns out, the last time they were rotated, whoever did it must have used the wrong size socket (Probably used a standard size instead of metric) and the chrome cover of the lug nut slid so the lug nuts were deformed and he couldn't get the lug nuts off. I ended up having to buy three new lug nuts. They called all over town trying to find ones for the Vibe, but Car Quest only had ones for the Matrix. The new ones look slightly different, but of course, they fit.They looked at me like I had a screw loose when I wasn't surprised the Toyota parts would fit on the Vibe. Guess I'll have to remind people working on my car to think of it as if they're working on a Toyota instead of a Pontiac.