Interesting, Tim, especially the discussion concerning aluminum wheels. I had the driver-side rear wheel/tire come loose on my '64 Nova wagon once (I run 15" Cragar mags on low-profile Kumho tires.) The tire got caught up under the car and caused the back end of my wagon to jump up in the air and about 4 feet to one side. I even saw a couple of the lug nuts rolling down the road behind me! Scared the living cr@p out of me, to say the least, not to mention snapping two lugs and denting the heck out of my inner wheelwell...and I was only going about 35 mph.
I never figured out what caused the nuts to loosen, but I check the torque on my wheels often, now! I agree. Use the impact, but final torque with a hand wrench.
Glad you weren't hurt.
~Bruce
(darn! And I swore I'd never talk about that 'incident'!
)
