On Tuesday the front drivers side tire blew out a mile form the house. I was to replace the rubber this week but rather would have chose the time and place myself. I jumped to emergency mode because I definitely did not want to be late to see the days patients. opened the trunk and flipped up the cover to the spare well, lifted out the foam jack and tire iron tool box and wal la...the corporate fiberglass rim with temporary spare was shredded from a previous owners encounter, the lug nuts were stripped, and the factory joke of a tire iron probably would have snapped if the lug nuts and spare were fine.
My mechanic (his 1983 Mustang GT w/6-71 blower equipped 427 cu/in small block ford was featured in last months "SLIPS") towed her to his shop that lies near my house. At his shop...he priced out the stock Conti Sports at $400 each. I was prepared for a big bite, but...please! We narrowed it down to corresponding Mitchelin's at $265 for each for the fronts. I'm picking her up this morning and will let you know what's up with the Mitchelins. I understand others here switched to Mitchelins but very concerned with providing them with updated wheel alignment specs that "Brutal" kindly provided us.
I'll keep yas updated with the results.

 

Hey... sorry to hear about the blow out!

And the lesson here...... it's been stated before...... everyone check your spare! And practice fitting it. Much easier to do it for real if you've done it in pleasant, non-stressful conditions. Also.... loosen and re-torque your lug nuts from time to time so you know they'll come off. If you don't like the factory tire iron, carry a good one.

Personally I take all the wheels off every time I service the car, so I can inspect them properly, ditto the brakes, suspension etc etc. Most of a service is looking. For chafing, rust, loose items, etc etc. Some prodding, some wiggling, but mostly looking.

 

Jagv8 is absolutely correct. As most of us are backyard mechanic gearheads, you know how satisfying it is to solve problems on your own, better yet, prevent them from arising in the first place. It was my own fault to be in a situation where I new the tires were wasted but procastinated= $$$. I'll replace the lug nuts with Dorman solid one piece chromes and tighten with a new lug wrench. The rear rubber is due for replacement too.

 

I use a dab of anti-seize on all the lug nuts. Just something I have done on every car for a long time.
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I've always done that but Jag explicitly say not to (they do say to put a little on the hub-to-disc face). With the anti-seize, you'd have to adjust the torque they specify, as theirs is a dry torque, but there's no actual equivalent....

 

Defintely do the Dorman one Piece chrome lugs. They use a 21 mm wrench as opposed to the 19mm supplied by Jag. I'd still use a little anti-seize and torque by hand... You KNOW when it's on their right.

George

 

Let us know how you get on with the Michelin tyres; I can get them cheapish from my tyreman. I use one of those extending wheel braces and I've never not been able to undo the wheel nuts even when they've been air-hammered on by a garage. I agree not to put anything on wheel studs. On one side they tend to naturally undo themselves with motion. Wagons have anti-clock threads on that side. (I think it's the nearside. That's if driving on the left side of the road).

 

The front tires on the STR are now Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 245/40ZR18, $265 a tire. Stock replacement Conti-Sports are $410 a tire.
Now she's quiet and sure footed. I recommend Mitchelins for their quality and relative affordability. I'm going to BJ's Wholesale Wharehouse to see if they can order Mitchelins for the rear. I'm wondering if the rear wheel and wheel well can accomodate a wider tire i.e. 295's versus stock 275's?

 

The A/S is excellent in the snow as well...(if it's an issue)

By far the best tire available IMO...

 

At slightly different take on the torque. a) its more important that all of the lug nuts have the same torque to prevent the disk from warping vs the absolute value of the torque; b) The optimal torque causes the bolt to streach to achieve its maximum strength. This only happens on the 1st use so technically there should be a different optimal torque for old and new bolts; c) there is a wide range of "safe torque" that will not cause your lug nuts to loosen under use since a torque wrench is rarely used in the impact driven tire shop or in my case - the jaguar dealer.

With that in mind, I have always used anti-seize and a torque wrench to the JTIS spec and when I check the torque after a few weeks, it hasn't changed. I guess one could add a few ft-lb to compensate for the anti-seize and it would still have less torque then the tire shop.

 

Yeah, I've read that before but can you see those huge hunks of metal warping with a slight imbalance in the torques? Seriously?
Er, these are not stretch bolts. I don't believe they stretch in an inelastic way.
I suspect so.

 

I believe there is quite of bit of torque varation before it causes it to warp but in general, its better if the torque is matched vs the absolute value of torque.

The maximum strength of any good bolt reaches is max strength when preloaded into the plastic region of the stress-strain curve. Its different for a new and used bolt. Its a material property that applies to any quality bolt

 

Yeah, it's better but unless there's a wide difference the rotor just isn't gonna warp. I even wonder if a wide variation would manage to warp one - they're hefty!
Er, I don't think that's English LOL - would you mind restating it, please. One thing, though, we're not going to put lug bolts into their plastic region, are we!!