Tire shop over torqued lug nuts (1969 Dart). Should I redo it?
Wow, I had no idea how much discussion this thread would inspire.
I did end up removing the wheels, inspecting them, and retorquing everything to 55 ft lbs. It turned out that it was only the one wheel with left handed lug nuts (the rear driver's side wheel) that was overtorqued. The other three seemed like they were only torqued to 40 ft lbs (at least that's how much torque showed on the beam torque wrench, before they started to loosen).
I don't know why they only overtorqued the wheel with the left handed lug nuts. Maybe because they had convinced themselves that the lug studs were slipping in the hub and so kept trying to tighten them? Maybe they didn't realize their torque wrench was set to the wrong setting (I did see them use a torque wrench)?
The holes in the wheel do seem kind of worn. I don't know if it matters. And also the lug nuts are pretty beaten up on the surface that mounts against the wheel. I wonder if I should get new lug nuts, because maybe a smoother surface would cause less wear and tear on the wheels? (I tried to attach images but they all came out as just solid blocks of color, I don't know why.)