Torque settings

Sindri · 15 Aug 2011 at 10:11

In the haynes manual it says that the lower damper bolt on a Renault clio mk2 phase 2 should be tightened to 105nm.

Now i set my torque wrench to this and managed to snap the bolt. When i went to re-order the bolt from renault a mechanic said that no wonder it broke as thats a higher figure than for even a roadwheel nut which is considerably thicker.

So basically this is aimed at traders and people in the know, if 105nm is too much then what do you tighten the bolts to?

Thanks in advance.

Participant · 15 Aug 2011 at 10:15

Well the torque for roadwheel nuts isn't that high?! Otherwise people would be given longer spanners in their cars for changing wheels. Or did he mean hub nut?

Secondly there's not necessarily a proportional relatipship between the size of the nut and the torque required. The nut was probably stressed.

Muncher · 15 Aug 2011 at 10:21

It does sound a bit high. What's the size of the bolt?

MrMatteh · 15 Aug 2011 at 10:26

it should be around 60Nm iirc.

Joshy · 15 Aug 2011 at 10:38

It depends on the bolt of course but I wouldn't say that figure seems too much. Off the top of my head our lower damper bolts are 150nm plus 90 degrees!

I'd actually think that below 105nm wasnt tight enough for wheel bolts.

ubersonic · 15 Aug 2011 at 11:32

Sindri said:
In the haynes manual it says that the lower damper bolt on a Renault clio mk2 phase 2 should be tightened to 105nm.

Now i set my torque wrench to this and managed to snap the bolt. When i went to re-order the bolt from renault a mechanic said that no wonder it broke as thats a higher figure than for even a roadwheel nut which is considerably thicker.

So basically this is aimed at traders and people in the know, if 105nm is too much then what do you tighten the bolts to?

Thanks in advance.

Ask people on a Clio forum if its an error in the manual, you get quite a few things like this, for instance Toyota got the torque settings for the head bolts on their 7M engines wrong from the factory and never fixed their mistake, so to this day if you take a 7M car to Toyota with a blown HG they will change it then torque it back too loose.

Simon · 15 Aug 2011 at 11:48

Renault clios will have smaller bolts that Bentleys though

Joshy · 15 Aug 2011 at 11:59

Simon said:
Renault clios will have smaller bolts that Bentleys though

Of course, but still. Someone mentioned 60nm earlier. If I saw that figure for something as substantial as a damper bolt I think I'd ignore it and go higher regardless of the car. Is don't know what size bolt we're talking about but 105nm seems sensible.

Wicksta · 15 Aug 2011 at 12:43

wrong thread

Sindri · 15 Aug 2011 at 12:43

Muncher said:
It does sound a bit high. What's the size of the bolt?

The bolt is about 70mm long and 12mm in diameter.

I did also ask on a specialist clio forum too, but i know there are quite a few clio owners on here so i wanted to see if anyone else had any idea.

dalin80 · 15 Aug 2011 at 13:22

Robbie G said:
Well the torque for roadwheel nuts isn't that high?! Otherwise people would be given longer spanners in their cars for changing wheels. Or did he mean hub nut?

Secondly there's not necessarily a proportional relatipship between the size of the nut and the torque required. The nut was probably stressed.

clio with 15 inch wheels has the wheel studs tightened to 105nm.

Front hub nut is 280nm.

Dr. Pain · 15 Aug 2011 at 13:28

60 or 80nm for a small hatchback front strut bolt sounds about right.

105nm seems too high. Never rely on Haynes, get the proper Renault workshop manuals off Ebay or something.

BennyC · 15 Aug 2011 at 13:38

IIRC when I had my 182 I did my wheels up to 100nm and they stayed on fine.

Firestar_3x · 15 Aug 2011 at 13:51

Dr. Pain said:
Never rely on Haynes,

100%, Haynes did me over with the Torque setting on a chassi bolt, snapped off, had to get someone to drill it out. My fault really if i'd been thinking instead of rushing through the job i would have caught the error.

Jonnycoupe · 15 Aug 2011 at 14:18

Was it a front bolt? Some hubs mount to the damper with a pinching arrangement between the bearing carrier and the damper which would require a high torque load where as others are a more typical bolt through a bush centre.

Liampope · 15 Aug 2011 at 14:45

Doesn't neccessarily sound too high at all to me for an M12. Didn't set your torque wrench to 105 ft.lbs, did you (over 140 Nm)?

taliesyn · 15 Aug 2011 at 15:21

Sindri said:
In the haynes manual it says that the lower damper bolt on a Renault clio mk2 phase 2 should be tightened to 105nm.

Now i set my torque wrench to this and managed to snap the bolt. When i went to re-order the bolt from renault a mechanic said that no wonder it broke as thats a higher figure than for even a roadwheel nut which is considerably thicker.

So basically this is aimed at traders and people in the know, if 105nm is too much then what do you tighten the bolts to?

Thanks in advance.

Why didn't the Renault mechanic tell you what the correct torque was then?

Sindri · 15 Aug 2011 at 15:22

Liampope said:
Doesn't neccessarily sound too high at all to me for an M12. Didn't set your torque wrench to 105 ft.lbs, did you (over 140 Nm)?

No, it was genuinely on the right setting as the other one I tightened didn't snap and the wrench clicked - as supposed to when it hit the requisite torque.

Sindri · 15 Aug 2011 at 15:27

taliesyn said:
Why didn't the Renault mechanic tell you what the correct torque was then?

I don't know but tbh i wasn't sure if he definitely knew what the right setting was. He just told me to tighten it up just using a normal spanner, presumably as it would be a lot less likely i would over torque it due to the leverage involved when compared to my torque wrench.

Muncher · 16 Aug 2011 at 09:48

Was there any lubricant on the biolt when you tightened it?

On the VX those bolts (althought not M12) are done to 60NM.