Putting the wheel back on is the part of a puncture repair that nobody stands and watches, and it is the part most likely to cause trouble weeks later. Wheel nuts have a specified figure, it is particular to the car, and it exists because both ways of getting it wrong are bad. Too loose and the clamping force is not enough to hold the wheel hard against the hub, so it shifts fractionally under braking, the seats wear oval and the nuts eventually work themselves off. Too tight and the studs have been stretched beyond the point where they spring back, which is how one shears off in somebody's hand the next time the wheel needs to come off.
So they go on by hand first, get run down in a star pattern rather than round the circle, and are brought up to the figure with a torque wrench in stages. Then, and this is the bit that gets skipped almost everywhere, they want checking again after a few miles. A freshly fitted wheel has a small amount of settling to do where its face beds against the hub, and that settling shows up as a slight loss of tension in every nut at once. Re-checking takes a minute. We tell you the figure out loud and we tell you when to do it.
Run-flats change the timing, not the rules. We come out in Earl's Court, get the wheel off and inspect the casing properly, because a run-flat that has been driven on soft can look perfect from the outside and be scrap inside. Valve in Old Brompton Road, balance in Warwick Road, pressures before we go. The wheel comes off in Warwick Road, not on a ramp in Fulham.
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Almost everything we repair around Nevern Square and Philbeach Gardens is done at the kerb with the car in a residents bay, and kerbside is exactly where standards tend to slip on the reassembly. It should not. The same star pattern, the same wrench and the same figure apply whether the wheel is going back on in a workshop or on a permit street with traffic going past. If you have had a wheel off anywhere at all recently, put the check on your list for a few miles afterwards rather than assuming it was done.
A wheel put back with an air gun somewhere else came apart badly the following year. One stud broke off as soon as it was loosened, which is what over-tightening buys you long after the person who did it has gone.
A repair done in a permit bay near Redcliffe went back on to the figure, and every nut took a fraction more movement when it was rechecked a week later. That is normal settling and it is exactly why the second check exists.
A wheel that had been done round the circle rather than across it had seated unevenly against the hub. Loosened, cleaned and brought up in stages, it sat flat and the vibration went with it.
Because the nut is not holding the wheel on, it is squeezing the wheel against the hub hard enough that friction holds it. Too little squeeze and the wheel moves under braking. Too much and the studs are permanently stretched. The figure is the point where you get the clamping force without damaging the fastening.
Yes, after a short distance. The faces of a wheel and a hub are never perfectly flat, and they bed together over the first few miles. That bedding relaxes the tension slightly in every nut, so a wheel that was correct in the bay will read a little loose afterwards. It is one minute of work and it is not optional.
An air gun is for taking things off. Its output varies with line pressure, temperature and how long the trigger is held, so what it delivers is a guess wearing a uniform. Nuts should be finished with a torque wrench, and anybody who runs a gun straight down onto them is not measuring anything.
Not unless the manufacturer specifically asks for it. Lubricant changes the friction in the joint, so the same reading on the wrench produces considerably more clamping force than intended and the studs get stretched. Clean, dry threads and a clean seat are what the figure was worked out on.
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