IMPORTANT: New Model S torque specification for mounting wheels

Thank you! I'm getting my torque wrench out tonight as soon as I get home from work.

175Nm is insanely high! But if Tesla says so?


Sent from my phone, so my apologies for typos.

The higher torque specs (175 Nm) is what I was originally quoted by Tesla in February, and has been repeated elsewhere here on the board.

ToddRLockwood said:

Tesla has recently updated the torque specification for wheel mounting. The change appears to have taken place in March or April of 2013. If your car was manufactured before March 1, 2013 and you have not been in for service yet, you should check the torque on your lug nuts. I recently discovered that mine were surprisingly loose.

The old spec was 140N.m. (103 lb/ft)

The NEW spec is 175N.m. (129 lb/ft)


Here's the whole story about what happened to me...

Has your Model S suspension lost its new-car crispness?

Click to expand...

ToddRLockwood said:

Tesla has recently updated the torque specification for wheel mounting. The change appears to have taken place in March or April of 2013. If your car was manufactured before March 1, 2013 and you have not been in for service yet, you should check the torque on your lug nuts. I recently discovered that mine were surprisingly loose.

The old spec was 140N.m. (103 lb/ft)

The NEW spec is 175N.m. (129 lb/ft)

Click to expand...

This is high! I guess it is function of car's weight and the monstrous maximum torque.

My Infiniti G35 is 80 lb/ft, Acura MDX - 90 lb/ft

vgrinshpun said:

This is high! I guess it is function of car's weight and the monstrous maximum torque.

My Infiniti G35 is 80 lb/ft, Acura MDX - 90 lb/ft

Click to expand...

It IS high. Most Rolls Royce and Bentley models are only 45-50 Ft. Lbs.

ToddRLockwood said:

Tesla has recently updated the torque specification for wheel mounting. The change appears to have taken place in March or April of 2013. If your car was manufactured before March 1, 2013 and you have not been in for service yet, you should check the torque on your lug nuts. I recently discovered that mine were surprisingly loose.

Click to expand...

In December, my local service center told me the spec was 175 Nm or 129 ft-lb, so I'm surprised they're calling it new... this is still when a good chunk of the service manual was still in draft form.

Thanks for providing this! Mine were way low...

For comparison, Corvette is 135 ft. lbs. However, the Telsa spec isn't news. It was posted here on Feb 6, here on Mar 28,

Holy crap. I didn't know it was going to be that high - I'm going to need a longer breaker bar.

> I guess it is function of car's weight and the monstrous maximum torque. [vg]

Contact area of lugs is large. So the 125 ft lbs is spread over this larger area. Has 125 figure been changed? Note also the 'safety ring' that increases the effective diameter of lug nuts even more, should a failure punch-through ever initiate. Put your shoulder to a 24 in breaker bar and its done- ain't goin' nowhere. Truly remarkable OEM rims/lug nuts.

@mknox:

What does Rolls / Bentley have to do with ModelS?? Does TM tell you what to do with your Bentley?? If you have no clue, please take it to TM Shop!! Have it done right.

> The old spec was 140N.m. (103 lb/ft) [TRL]

This is nonsense - the spec was 125 lb/ft since last summer. You begin a thread based on a strawman.
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ToddRLockwood said:

Jerry, Tesla did a less-than-perfect job of updating the service centers on that change when it was first pronounced. Throughout the month of March the service centers were transitioning to a new service database. The earlier database still had the old torque spec listed. I guess the service centers should be paying more attention to TMC!

Click to expand...

I think your switchover date is incorrect, or they were looking in a place that was horribly wrong. When my TPMS sensors were fixed in December, the St. Louis service manager gave me the spec that's been on my wheel torque wrench since that day - 129 ft lbs. He looked it up in a service manual that was clearly marked "DRAFT".

I just read this thread and then had to go google "torque wrench". So, is there a size? 1/2 inch? I'm guessing you dial in the wanted torque and away you go.

(thanks youtube).

Just checked my car, delivered Feb 5 - all lug nuts within the new spec limit.

LazMan said:

I just read this thread and then had to go google "torque wrench". So, is there a size? 1/2 inch? I'm guessing you dial in the wanted torque and away you go.

Click to expand...

Torque wrenches are sold by capacity. Get one that goes to 150 ft. lbs. rather than the 250 ft. lbs. big truck variety. The driver size will be what it is. The click-stop kind are convenient, but expensive and prone to damage. They must be stored in the relaxed position, and sent in for calibration every so often--good for shops, not so good for infrequent usage. The kind that have a bar and a ruler-like gauge are inexpensive, and likely more accurate over the long run in a low-use situation. Their main disadvantage is that they can be hard to read if you are torquing something other than wheels.

jerry33 said:

Torque wrenches are sold by capacity. Get one that goes to 150 ft. lbs. rather than the 250 ft. lbs. big truck variety. The driver size will be what it is. The click-stop kind are convenient, but expensive and prone to damage. They must be stored in the relaxed position, and sent in for calibration every so often--good for shops, not so good for infrequent usage. The kind that have a bar and a ruler-like gauge are inexpensive, and likely more accurate over the long run in a low-use situation. Their main disadvantage is that they can be hard to read if you are torquing something other than wheels.

Click to expand...

Thanks Jerry. Sounds as if (as always) there isn't a "perfect" one.

Which one specifically would you recommend for use on my MS?

I cinched mine up last night. They were already pretty tight and they took a very small fraction of a turn to snug them up to specs.