More on audi wheel bolts/studs/torque

[QSHIPQ at aol.com]

After my Gingermann incident 2 weekends ago (wheel off), and subsequent list
'engineering' chatter, my second performance operations opportunity came this
past weekend at LSPR with the S2 Rally car.  The car is an audisport 95 S2
with sport q brakes and stud conversion.  We ran 2 different sets of wheels
tires (compomotive no spacers and ABT mit spacers).  Obviously wheel torque
was still fresh on my mind.

Studs in terms of torque?  Didn't appear to do a damn thing boys, spacers or
no....   The wheel nuts were still loose after only 2 stages of running, and
rechecks of wheel torques during the rally indicated that the fresh wheel
change does affect wheel bolt torque, and after a couple of rechecks (without
wheel change) the torque remained constant.  This experience supports BB and
my contention that frequent retorques in a performance environment should be
the riguer, and any other "fix" is complicated by definition.

ALL top teams (including mitsu and scoobies) were retorquing wheels at EVERY
service stop, wheel change or not.  Bretts comments on "hot wheel" torque
might be worth pursuing...  But IME, you don't have time to cool the wheels
in most performance arenas (you couldn't hold the hot wheel nuts during swaps
in my case).   I've personally never heard of a "revised" hot wheel bolt/nut
torque in practice.

Studs on our car are due to be replaced.  FYI, I doubt ANY shop would (they
shouldn't anyway) reuse a pressed out wheel bearing.  The risk of doing the
job twice isn't worth the effort.  We also experienced slag deposits on the
studs from removing and installing hot wheels.  The easy thing to do is to
replace wheel bolts at a routine interval, make sure hub threads are clean (a
battery brush works well here) and allow no radial play of bolts

WRT jamb nuts on studs....  I'd never do it, and few fastener manufacturers
would recommend it.  Get the 10.9 grade bolts/nuts and recheck torque often,
or even more....

As an aside, I've gotten several humorous stories of those who lost a wheel
sometime in their lifetime (I'm in more company than I thought).  Common
denominator?  All members of this club, are now pretty fanatical about wheel
fastener torque.  And the average "loss" count in this club is *exactly* 1.
Hmmm.    Sure hope all this saves someone else from this ascribed membership.

Studs aren't "overkill", nor a fix.  Get a torque wrench, and overkill the
use of it.

HTH

Scott Justusson., M.A.C.
Membership Avoidance Counselor
3 wheeler club