Torque Wrench - Safety Question

I recently bought a torque wrench - the modern 'click' collar design, 20-150ft lb torque,
and the appropriate size six point sockets for the lugnuts on mine and my wife's cars.

I loosened and re-torqued my wife's wheel lugnuts to spec, or maybe 1lb over, but
what was really scary was how tight they were on, initially. Of course I used her tire
iron, and not my new wrench! to loosen the lugs at each wheel, and for most of them,
I'm 190lbs myself, yet was able to STAND ON THE TIRE IRON and ride it down to loosen
those nuts! I'm guessing whoever last tightened them must have been to 100 or even
200 ft/lbs. WTH?!

The torque spec for her car's wheel lugnuts is 76 ft/lbs, so I set the wrench to about 77,
retorqued each wheel, then moved on to the next one: Loosen, retorque, 5X.

My question: After having been on her car at such overtorque for so long, is there any
risk of some of her lugnuts loosening over time, now that they are all at a much lower
torque: within 1 pound of what they should be tightened to?

I also waited almost two hours after she drove home from work for things to cool down
before loosen & retorque.

Too many tire shops use impacts and hammer lug nuts on. I've never had an issue after loosening lugnuts and then retightening to "proper torque." I don't personally use a torque wrench on wheels, because at this point in my life I know the proper feel it has when tightening with a breaker bar.

Too many tire shops use impacts and hammer
lug nuts on. I've never had an issue after loosening
lugnuts and then retightening to "proper torque." I
don't personally use a torque wrench on wheels, because
at this point in my life I know the proper feel it has when
tightening with a breaker bar.


So no risk of them, having been potentially stretched at whatever tightness they were before, not being able to hold the much lower specified torque?

As you've probably gleaned from reading my conversation, I'm a born-again 'measurement-head', lol! I like my tires within one-tenth PSI of spec, my lugs at or just a hair above spec(particularly older ones). I pink-noised all the speakers in my home surround system to be within 1dB level of each other.

Some call me 'anal'... I call it science ;)

I'm pretty sure this rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat tightening of lug nuts by shops is a result of the fear that the vehicle will lose a wheel on the road and involve the shop owner in a liability lawsuit.

I'm pretty sure this rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat tightening of lug nuts
by shops is a result of the fear that the vehicle will lose a wheel
on the road and involve the shop owner in a liability lawsuit.


But can't those shop guns be adjusted - either at the compressor(globally), or on the one gun itself?

And I did see the long sockets that some use to torque lug nuts: I'm not sure which way it goes, the thick or thinness of the socket 'neck' determines the torque applied, usually in increments of 10ft/lbs.

I guess if I worked at a tire place, or doing mostly tire work, brakes, or alignments at a full-service place or dealership, my throughput wouldn't be the highest, and my bonus rate lower. But: my customers' wheels & rims would all be tightened properly, and they'd have the correct pressures in their tires(plus a couple lbs. allowance for having driven here).

I guess I always remembered that expression "If something's important, you make the time for it!"