e36 Rear Hub Problems?

Hi,

I have a '94 318i with drum brakes on the rear.

The other day I noticed a low pitch humming noise from the rear of the car,
I recognised this noise from a problem I had with the car earlier in the
year and it turned out to be the other wheel this time.

The problem being that I was able to move the rear wheel left to right with
my hands whilst parked up!!

It turns out that the nut on the end of the half shaft had come loose (trx
star nut), and it had happend again!

I understand these nuts need to be set to a certain torque to stay tight up
against the drum, and I had watched a mechanic using a windy gun do this
previous a few months ago

Can someone tell me why these nuts keep undoing? As I dont understand what
is going on?

Thanks

> It turns out that the nut on the end of the half shaft had come loose (trx
> star nut), and it had happend again!
>
> I understand these nuts need to be set to a certain torque to stay tight up
> against the drum, and I had watched a mechanic using a windy gun do this
> previous a few months ago

The air-gun doesn't necessarily tighten the lugs to the proper
torque. My mechanic always adjusts all the nuts manually after
air-gunning them in, and sets them to the right torque
(125 Nm is what he uses).

In article >,
mOOnEyEs > wrote:
> I understand these nuts need to be set to a certain torque to stay tight
> up against the drum, and I had watched a mechanic using a windy gun do
> this previous a few months ago

Hmm. While accurate air guns are available for production use, most would
use a torque wrench to check. It should be 200 Nm.

> Can someone tell me why these nuts keep undoing? As I dont understand
> what is going on?

--
*It was all so different before everything changed.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.