I have just finished repainting under the hood of my 240. I painted over the 3 nuts on top of the strut towers. I have purchased new nuts to replace them.

My question is; can I simply remove the old nuts and replace them, (assuming I do not move the car),..or will that throw something out of wack??

Also,...the best I can find on line,...the torque for these nuts should be 18 to 25 foot lbs. Does that sound correct?

Yes, that sounds about right. Pull 'em and replace.

You can replace all 3 at once but if the wheel is off the ground, just replace one at a time to save a headache.

I thought the torque spec on those was closer to 40 lbs. 20 sounds light for 14 mm nuts.

Removing those nuts will mess up the paint around the washers...if that matters to you.

Chuck

FSM page FA-21, Strut Assembly, Nut used to install the strut assembly on the body--18.1-25.3 ft-lb or 2.5 to 3.5 kg-m.

Bonzi Lon