Do you grease your nuts

Not sure about greasing wheel nuts ........ I don't .

Wheel nuts should not be greased. Manufacturers specify that stud threads and mating surfaces be clean and dry to ensure accurate torque readings. Lubricating threads reduces friction, causing over-tightening (stretching studs) at standard torque settings, which can lead to stud breakage or wheels coming loose.

Something else to think about .

Cheers
Jim

Hi Nick

I apply Never Seize, small dab on my finger and small amount to the wheel studs, then use my torque bar to the correct tension, never any problems betting them off and the smear on the studs stops any rusting.

Before I wiped the excess grease off

.
I used an anti-seize thread lubricant on the Troopy. Only lightly applied to the treads and not to the coned face of the nuts.

In the industries I worked in it was common to lubricate the threads of critical fastenings. I observed it but was not directly involved. I appreciated that the construction engineers acted upon established standards for these specific applications. For automotive application there seems to be no universal standard or advice. I can only observe that no new car of mine ever appeared to have lubricant on the wheel studs.

But consider the physics involved…. when tightening and using a torque wrench, the wrench is actually measuring or reacting to the torsional force, although this torsional force is a function of both the friction on the threads and on the face of the nut plus the clamping force or bolt stretch. The friction of the threads and nut face are somewhat variable due to the surface condition which will change from new and clean to dirty and somewhat corroded with time. Hence it is not a particularly accurate method of clamping to a particular force but is convenient. Lubricating the threads eliminates one variable but without expert engineering advice I was reluctant to lubricate the nut face. I still tightened the nut to the manufacturers specified torque value as I was unsure of the effect of the change and anyway still had the friction of the nut face in the equation. I felt that I had a more reliable clamping effect than with dry bolts. I never had any problem with nuts loosening.

In industry, the practice for some critical applications such as the flange bolts of high pressure natural gas pipelines, was to lubricate both the threads and the nut face and tighten the nut by hand wrench until positively tight. The nut was then rotated by a further specified number of rotation degrees usually by means of a slogging spanner and sledge hammer. This specified rotation combined with the thread pitch stretched the bolt by a known amount and produced the desired clamp force reliably. But no, I am not suggesting you do that to your wheels.

Nick.
I am amused as to how people take notice of YOUTUBE instructions, Grease/No GREASE. I particularly like the beginners guide to BRAIN SURGERY for the latest up to date methods. I do have a BATTERY DRILL and HOLE SAW.
I wonder IF anyone has actually tightened wheel nuts sufficiently, or perhaps torqued it.,- Marked the positions etc., and then added some lube to the SAME nut/STUD with the SAME TORQUE and see just how much more the FLATS of the NUT readily turns past the original position. I usually add a little lube spray to limit GALLING of nut and STUD thread. Just reducing torque by 20% because YT said so, is a bit SUS. The only real way is to measure the STUD stretch with lube and without at same torque. I used to rebuild CAT engines and often they used known length bolts and tightened to a specific STRETCH LENGTH increase which indicates CORRECT CLAMPING FORCE. NO TORQUE WRENCH used!