I read the weekly "Car Talk" ( written by the guys from NPR radio) in my Saturday Newspaper. I enjoy their column ! This week's problem featured a lady driving a Volvo. Her front tire popped off and her car veered off the road and crashed. The bolts that attach the wheel to the rotor snapped. The mechanics state they have seen this before on Volvos, Volkswagens, and Mercedes. They have bolts -- not lug nuts. If the bolts are over tightened they can fail and snap. I had my 1995 850 GLT checked by and discovered that several bolts had been torqued down too much.
You may want to keep this in mind when the person at your tire shop installs or rotates your tires.
Second, a few years back, I learned from the same 'Car Talk' column that some gas brands are better than others. It seems that the 'additive package' put into gasoline had deteriorated in quality. General Motors and I Think, Toyota felt this deterioration in quality would affect life of their engines. You can read a list of gasoline companies that provide the higher quality gas at www.toptiergas.com
I would welcome any opinions about the veracity of these two topics.

 

This is PRECISELY why I think everyone should own and know how to use a torque wrench. I always ask the people who install tires on anything I own to hand torque with a torque wrench.

 

I did not know that, I'm about to go check mine right now. Thanks for the info

 

That reminds me I need to check mine since getting new tires and a front end alignment a couple weeks ago.

I had a set of tires put on a Camry at our local Sam's Club years ago. I had no need to take them (lug nuts) off for about 6 months, until I went to do a front brake pad job on it. On each side, 2 or 3 of the 5 snapped off when I tried to break them loose! I contacted Sam's Club and they said they couldn't cover that from 6 months prior. I was upset about it, but the parts didn't cost that much (lug bolts tapped into the hub on that car) and I just chalked it up to "bought experience." Ever since then, I usually (forgot this time and it was a reputable "tire store") leave the store and check them immediately (by loosening them and tightening back to proper torque).

I think it is a common thing (to save time and effort). They say they are torqued "to spec," but in reality, an impact wrench is used to tighten them until they are VERY tight. Then someone comes behind them with a torque wrench that clicks at the set torque (say 81 ft/lbs in this case) and they think "yep, that's right." But the impact wrench may have torqued the fastener much higher than the specified torque (which is a set value, not a "minimum"), which will naturally make the torque wrench click at a lower value (ie a bolt is torqued to 135 ft/lb, a torque wrench set to 81 ft/lb is applied and immediately clicks when force is placed on it). I learned the hard way, but thankfully no one was injured on the roadway.

Tracy

 

And for those of you playing at home, torque spec for the 850 is 82 ft lbs.

 

Oh so that 120 that most shops hammer them in at may be too much???
Shocking...
hence they are tire shop employees not master mechanics building engines...

 

One of several reasons I love Discount Tire. They always hand torque everything.

 

I've heard about "top tier" gas before, but... All the gas i've ever seen for sale now a days has 10% ethanol in it (except that one time i drove thru Iowa. They have real gas...)

Thats got to help clean up some deposits and varnish i would think...
And it looks like it is actually one of the requirements to be "top tier"

meh... Im good with whoever stop and shop and xtra mart get their gas from.