Lief bought a used Subaru for Abby to drive while she's in college. It needed to have the brakes checked and in the process of removing the wheels we discovered the lug nuts were so tight they broke the lug studs on two separate wheels. I estimated that the lug nuts had been tightened to about 150 foot pounds. It took all of my strength to get them loose, and of course two of them snapped off. (The brakes turned out to be OK.)
Replacing the broken lug studs proved to be a challenge. We put the new stud in place and then tightened the wheel until the new stud had been pulled tight and reset into the axle hub. We checked the torque on all four wheels with a torque wrench and found them to be at 90 foot pounds...a bit tighter than recommended but soft enough for Abby to get loose in an emergency. A few months later she had a flat tire and had to remove those lug nuts herself. Lief talked her through it via cellphone: "Arrange the wrench so it needs to be pushed down, then shove it down with your foot." It worked!
