I used one of those autozone "cross" style wrenches. So pushing on one end and pulling on another end and going as far as my strength will go without jumping on it.

Store it right? I have one on a shelf in my garage. No warm blanket or fluffy pillows for it. Hope it still works now.

Unfortunately I was the last guy who had the wheels off. To my knowledge anyways. I definitely had all five bolts on. After i was done i went and did a once over to be sure. This was a brand new set of summer tires on new wheels so i was especially cautious.
Now you got me thinking about where i parked the car once again....

Also I take it everyone uses a torque wrench for the oil filter canisters too? Torque wrenching all the way for me from now on. Not even my coffee flask will be spared. :-)

 

So how did two bolts stay tight then?
Did the wheel holes getting elongated ? Strange, is it possible the wheel fitment is somehow wrong?
Sounds like you had them tight enough by your description.
Torque wrenches needs to be loosened up when not in use.

 

I hate to agree with you but yeah, reconsider where you parked and/or vandalism. Based on how you described it, it's almost remote that you didn't tighten 3 boots. One I can believe, but 3????

 

When storing a torque wrench you need to reset the guage to 0 to release the tension from the internal spring. Otherwise, you risk 'stretching' the spring which will cause innacurate torquing in the future.

Go check your wrench. If it's at 0, you're fine. If it's been sitting for more than a month or two with any considerable measurement dialed in, you should either trash it if it's a cheapo one or go get it recalibrated if it was pricier.... or don't do anything... at your own risk.

 

Actually, let's all go back to basics here.
Are you using the correct 14x1.5 ball seat lug bolts? If they are conical seats or no seat, they will shake loose much more easily.

Do you have spacers? If not, your bolts should be the correct 40mm length (28.3 mm thread length). If you have spacers, add your spacer width to that bolt length.

I don't mean to sound condescending, but the fact you were not torquing the lugs to the spec'd torque setting leads me to believe there may be other oversights.

 

That as they say is the the $M?
Good point about elongation, but if that's the case the nuts will still be in place no? These are brand new 19" avant garde ruger mesh wheels. The other three wheels are fine. Do wheels need "breaking in" to account for expansion and contraction? Almost afraid to drive this car now.

 

These nuts came with the wheel as the regular OEM nuts don't fit. See attached image. I didn't measure but simply trusted that if they came with the wheels they must be correct.
No spacers.

No offense taken.

Torque wrench was not reset. hasn't been used in over 6 months. Guess that means i have to buy a new one.

Anyone using AG Ruger mesh wheels? Did you use the supplied nuts or something else?

 

Those look conical to me and not a ball seat. I'd call your wheel distributor and demand different lug bolts. Anyone else want to weigh in here? I don't have experience with AG lugs.

 

OP's wheels are aftermarket. Agreed about calling your vendor, but ask what kind of lug bolts this exact model of wheel uses including the length to verify against what you have. And then ask them if you could reuse the OEM lug bolts instead, to test their knowledge. The two lug bolts in the picture look different in seat type, seat size, and length. Your vendor should know these details. Matching the wheel seat type/size/angle is very important.

Porsche OEM wheels use a swiveling ball seat. Many other car makers use a fixed conical seat and nuts instead of bolts. Aftermarket wheels often match OEM wheels from a mounting perspective so you can reuse the lug bolts. But this is not always the case. As long as the thread type matches the wheel hub, the length is correct to get enough threads into the wheel hub, and the lug bolt seat matches the wheel type/size/angle you are good to go.

Another thing to check is to manually verify the length of a properly installed lug bolt. Unscrew one lug bolt from another wheel. Then manually reinsert it with a socket on an extension without a ratchet, and spin slowly by hand until it first catches. Mark the 12 o'clock position. Now install it fully and torqued it down to spec while counting revolutions. The OEM wheel hub is an M14x1.5 thread. Multiply the number of revolutions by the 1.5 thread pitch and you get the number of mm's the lug bolt is inserted into the hub. If this is less than the hub thickness or screw hole depth your lug bolts are too short for that wheel.

 

I'm a little surprised at the number of people that use torque wrenches for wheel bolts on this threads. So far my spidey senses have been successful at torquing lugs.

I do use the torque wrench for my oil plug, though.

 

The distributor is the same one that sells avant grade ruger mesh wheels on this forum. I got the hook ups from here. They are knowledgeable. Certainly to the extent I can tell. I will ask them them question you suggested. I'll also give the "math homework" you suggested a shot.

I came across an ad yesterday asking something like "would you trust a bolt like this" the bolt look exactly like mine!!

 

The bolt on the left is exactly like mine!! We are closing in on solving this mystery. Although reading through the forum the guys that posted that ad "Wheel dynamics" have lost all credibility on this forum. But still.....

 

The top picture shows aftermarket wheels that fit OEM lug bolts. The smaller "tuner" lug bolts are the wrong type of seat - conical - for that wheel. This type of wheel must use OEM bolts or OEM equivalent.

The bottom picture shows aftermarket wheels that do not fit OEM lug bolts. You must use the smaller "tuner" lug bolts here. These tuner lug bolts are fine to use in this application because they match the wheel mounting seat.

The point is some aftermarket wheels are setup to reuse OEM or OEM equivalent lug bolts. Other use something different entirely. Find out which version of wheels you have and match your lug bolts to them.

 

The whole premise of the ad is that the tuner wheels are NOT fine to use. While they are the only choice if you buy the ruger Mesh wheels, the ad is saying don't buy wheels that require tuner bolts.

The bolts came with the wheels so wasn't like i ordered the wrong ones in the first place. I can simply reorder them from the distributor. The problem here is as nwGTS stated, are they any good? According to the ad the answer is no. Maybe it's not a torque wrench i should be buying but a new set of wheels that will use the OEM bolts.
Are you using tuner bolts yourself? if so how long and how well is it holding up?

 

I still don't think you're stating the issue properly - the tuner lug bolts ARE fine to use as long as the wheel has been designed to use them. The tuner lug bolts you have are NOT to be used with wheels like the OEM Porsche wheels that use the ball seat type lug bolts. The tuner lug bolts are to be used with wheels that have been designed to use them such as your Ruger Mesh wheels. With the wheel mounted properly and with 5 lug bolts properly torqued there is no reason for 3 or 4 lug bolts to come loose. I still think your first instinct is correct - someone started to take the wheel and had second thoughts or were scared away.