Hi Bryan,
It is not just that the nuts be tight, but that they be equally
tight. Unequal torque will promote warpage of the wheel or brake
disk. That said, if you tightened them in several passes (snug,
snugger, tight), they would be very close. If you are at all
concerned, take it to a tire shop. Around here, they would do that
kind of check for free.
Dan


Bryan Canter (bcnewsgroups@yahoo.com) writes:
> Hi:
>
> I had to change a broken hub cap in my Honda Accord this weekend.
> This is the first time I took the wheel out myself so I was following
> the instructions in the user manual (on changing a flat tire). It
> said after putting in the spare, to stop by at the nearest auto shop
> and have them check the torque on wheel nuts after tightening them
> yourself.
>
> Since I was not putting in a temporary spare tire, I would not be
> working on the wheel in near future. I was wondering how important it
> is for me to have the nuts' torque checked professionally on that one
> wheel. I believe I did a good job of tightening (such that the
> spanner would not move any further) but there is always some scope of
> a mistake.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> PS: I could not locate the place under the body where jack should be
> placed as indicated in the manual. I spent a good 10-15 minutes
> trying to locate the arrow etched in the body as the manual says, but
> I could not find any arrow. So I took my best guess, based on the
> manual picture, description and common sense, and placed the jack
> there. Any pointers on how to locate that would be appreciated.
>
> PPS: Doing this yesterday gave me a tremendous amount of confidence
> for situations where I might be caught with a flat tire. :-)