WallyP

From the 1986 booklet of service info by year:

Wheel Nut Treatment on Aluminum Rims
If wheel nuts are lubricated with the wrong type of grease prior to installation or even installed
dry, the spherical calottes of wheel nuts could seize in the countersunk holes of the rims.
The factory is using OPTIMOLY TA paste successfully at the present time.
This lubricant is available in 150gram tubes for Service (Part No. 000.043.020.00).
The tightening torque for wheel nuts is still 130 Nm.

Lots of interesting reading in this series of booklets, available in Jim Morehouse's CD set.

StratfordShark

Very interesting - have always put lugs on dry up till now.

Does anyone knwo of non-Porsche equivalent for Optimoly TA? What are we talking about chemically?

GregBBRD

We use the factory lubricant, and have, for 20 years. We "smear" on a coat, every time the wheels are off. Takes a bunch of extra time (if you add it all up, in a year) and the stuff is expensive, but we never have an issue with lug nuts....although we fix a lot of lug nuts that have "issues", from other places. The other thing we do is use a lug nut socket that goes the entire way over the nut portion and torque every lug nut. We're a bit "****".

I've tried just about every product someone has mentioned, but always go back to the factory stuff.

Incendier

Found this on the landsharks.oz site:

"Optimol, a German Company, was taken over by Castrol many many years ago. Optimoly TA is now
called Optipaste TA and is available in 400 g spray cans, and 500 g or 5 kg containers from Castrol
distribution outlets. Another very similar product is Mobil’s Greaserex RGM-2. [Doug Hillary —
Australian landshark mailing list.] Both Porsche and BMW specified Optimoly TA for wheel nuts on wide variety of models.
Never use a copper based grease such as ‘‘coppercoat’’. The copper reacts with water and bonds the aluminium nut to the steel studs."

Would the standard-issue Permatex Anti-Seize fit the bill similarly?

DR

Yep, all of the tubes we have been getting from Porsche for a while have the Castrol labels on them.

Here is the MSDS sheets for the Optimol TA which lists composition of ingredients that could be compared to similar products.

http://msdspds.castroladvantage.com/...e/113846%2Epdf

Landseer

Thanks for the information, I've used antiseize but will change.

CD's are great with all the suppliemental stuff.

worf928

I've always used aluminum-based anti-seize paste on the collet of the lug nut. (And on the back of the rotor and on the mating surface of the back of the wheel on my winter daily drivers.)

And, of course, I always use a torque wrench. So far never an issue.

Thoughts? Wheels about to fall off or....?

Garth S

Well ... there is an old school of thought that supports never lubricating mating surfaces of assemblies that are intended to resist shear forces: the fastners/studs under tension when torqued to spec generate the required friction ( via compression) between the two dry faces to eliminate slippage. Lube would facilitate slippage, which would place the studs under shear forces .... not the way they are intended to hold a wheel to a hub.
A view, perhaps, that has divided nations . .... but I prefer to never lube these surfaces ( I do, however, lube the lips of the hubcentric areas).

Mrmerlin

This is good information, I always recoat the threads and the collets with aluminum antiseize as well as the concentric hub ( the part that fits into the wheels) so it wont stick when the wheel is being removed.
I have found that uncoated studs have a higher tendency for damaging the lugs and if steel lugs are used they can seize onto the studs..
Think about this next time your removing the lugs and they are shreiking from being loosened.. usually from dry threads.
On the properly torqued lug I have not ever found any of the lugs that I have installed to be loose after being put into service

jcorenman

Wally, this is great info. I've always used the standard Permatex silver-colored goop on wheel lugs without problems-- torqued to spec, always tight when loosened with no "screeching" (gawd I hate that noise!).

But using the factory stuff makes sense, those parts are expensive! And I bet I know where to find it!

Also good thoughts on using the goop on the hub-center. I've never seen corrosion on the 928, but our Volvo xc70 ski-wagon likes to corrode there- a real pain in the butt to get the wheels off. Maybe I'll have to start treating it nicer-- get some Optimaly for the 928 and relegate the Permatex to the Volvo...

Thanks Wally!!

GregBBRD

BTW....We never lubricate the portion of the lug nut that touches the wheel, just the threads of the stud.

WallyP

Greg,

The reason for the post can be summed up by the manual statement:
"If wheel nuts are lubricated with the wrong type of grease prior to installation or even installed dry, the spherical calottes of wheel nuts could seize in the countersunk holes of the rims."

Sounds as if Porsche wants the portion of the lug nut that touches the wheel lubed.

ew928

Thanks Wally.

Now I don't have to wonder whether the lug nuts are mounted dry, lubed on just contact surface, lubed threads.

That dry lug nut release graunch is not a pleasant sound.

WallyP

I lube the contact surface and the threads.

Greg's method of using a full depth socket is critical!

ew928

I've seen what a not fully seated socket will do to the alloy lug nut.
Not many have enjoyed removing decapitated lug nuts.

When I torque the nuts, I give the socket a nice smack to make sure it's seated fully.
If the smack doesn't feel right, then I've got the socket on a locknut without the key.
(Going to put in normal lug nuts on the next wheel swap cycle.)