To Grease or not?
There has been much discussion and debate on this Forum about the merits or otherwise of lubricating wheel bolt/nut and seats with any sort of lubricant.
I for one have always sparingly used a copper based grease for any wheel nut/bolts on the fleet of cars which I have now and owned previously. The careful use of Copper Grease has always been my mantra and I have never had a loose wheel bolt/nut in all the years I've been driving (over 37 years to date)
The reason I chose to do this was to prevent the damn things seizing on.........having been in the unenviable position of being unable to get some wheel bolts undone at a Tyre Fitting Centre where the pneumatic impact driver would not touch them and then it took 2 burly guys, a large scaffolding tube, trolley jack and spider wheel brace to finally get the bolts (5 on each wheel) to loosen off.
There would have been no chance of getting these off at the roadside (had it been necessary).
Corrosion product between Alloy wheels and Steel/Iron brake discs/drums can also result in a more than firmly attached wheel assembly. I also carefully apply a thin coating of Waxoyl to the mating faces on any car that I have acquired after struggling to get the wheel of the hub.
If doing this was likely to cause the wheels to come adrift ( in a similar fashion to the Bailey Caravan wheel fiasco) then I'm sure that I would have experienced this with one of the many cars I have owned over the last 37 years.....strangely it has not happened ....so what is the real problem with the Bailey Caravan Wheel Bolts?
Could it be the vans which are carried on the transporters rather than towed behind are more susceptible due to vibration being applied while the wheel is not turning or is it something more sinister?