Torque for wheel bolts

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Grumpyjohn1957
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Torque for wheel bolts

Post by Grumpyjohn1957 » Sun Feb 21, 2021 11:53 am

Would anyone happen to know the correct torque setting for B5 touring wheel bolts?
Is there a wet vs dry setting (wet = anti seize applied sparingly to thread lead only)?

I'd like to whip the wheels off for proper cleaning, plus I'll need two new rears very shortly.
Would be nice to have the info' so I can share it with Mr. Buzzgun the tyre monkey.
John
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Metrics
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Re: Torque for wheel bolts

Post by Metrics » Sun Feb 21, 2021 12:20 pm

Hi John

140nm, no difference in wet or dry as far as I know.
2019 G31 B5 Biturbo No.299
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Grumpyjohn1957
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Re: Torque for wheel bolts

Post by Grumpyjohn1957 » Sun Feb 21, 2021 12:49 pm

Great, thank you.
John
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davettf2
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Re: Torque for wheel bolts

Post by davettf2 » Sun Feb 21, 2021 6:16 pm

There is a difference between wet and dry torque. When lubricated the coefficient of friction between the sliding, thread, surfaces is lower. Thus the rotation for a given torque will be greater, thus the tension in the bolt will be greater. However, probably not overly important in this instance, but can be surprisingly important when putting your engine together.

Cheers
Dave

PerryGunn
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Re: Torque for wheel bolts

Post by PerryGunn » Mon Feb 22, 2021 9:53 pm

There's an easy way to remember to BMW wheel bolt torques for their 'standard' bolt sizes of 12mm & 14mm

The recommended torques are ((bolt diameter in mm) x 10Nm) +/- 10Nm

This means that
12mm bolts should be 120Nm +/10Nm so 110-130Nm
14mm bolts should be 140Nm +/10Nm so 130-150Nm

The educated amongst you will notice an overlap at 130Nm so, if you can't recall the 'normal' torque or don't know the bolt size, you can tighten to 130Nm and still be within spec.
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bobbly
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Re: Torque for wheel bolts

Post by bobbly » Sun Feb 28, 2021 12:51 pm

PerryGunn wrote:
Mon Feb 22, 2021 9:53 pm
There's an easy way to remember to BMW wheel bolt torques for their 'standard' bolt sizes of 12mm & 14mm

The recommended torques are ((bolt diameter in mm) x 10Nm) +/- 10Nm

This means that
12mm bolts should be 120Nm +/10Nm so 110-130Nm
14mm bolts should be 140Nm +/10Nm so 130-150Nm

The educated amongst you will notice an overlap at 130Nm so, if you can't recall the 'normal' torque or don't know the bolt size, you can tighten to 130Nm and still be within spec.
Doesn't matter what "make" of wheelbolt, only it's size. Therefore use this system for all "makes" of wheelbolt and you'll always be in the parish of safety.

NEVER lube wheel bolts. It leads to lower friction in threads meaning a) they go on easier, b) they come off easier (often unaided....) and most importantly c) torque stretches the nut and bolt threads (it's main aim) and locks them under controlled stretch and torsion conditions accordingly. Adding lube results in bolts which stretch further before the torque figure is reached, and overstretched bolts in torsion load will fatigue fail much, much quicker possibly leading to a 'lost wheel' scenario. For high clamping loads, in industry use, bolts are physically stretched whilst straight and then nut locked to achieve higher compression loading, thus avoiding excess torque within the bolt or fixings, so in those scenarios 12mm and 14mm bolts can hold significantly higher clamping loads than on car wheel hubs.

Cheers
Bobbly

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