Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for mechanics and DIY enthusiast owners of cars, trucks, and motorcycles. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I understand that lug nuts should not be tightened with an impact wrench because of the risk of over-torquing. Could a lug nut be tightened most of the way with a powered non-impact driver and then finished off with a torque wrench?
Specifically, is this a reasonable and/or common approach, and are there any caveats?
tl dr: No. Not a driver/drill as you've described.
Usually, hand tools are used for the tightening of lugs, then followed with a torque wrench to ensure accuracy in getting the wheels onto a vehicle. This is not only the preferred method, but how it should be done.
There is one caveat ... if you use torque sticks, you can use an impact gun. A torque stick is a device which, when the lug gets to the specific torque needed, will give enough to not tighten any more. They are magic, but work perfectly. You'll see tire shops use these because it saves a lot of time.
UPDATE:
Here is a link to the Torque-Stick site. I'm only including it for reference to what I'm talking about.
