Just for the record, I have never lubricated any nut or bolt on a car. Clean them, yes, but not lubricate. I have done so on a small trailer, the reason being that following the theft of one of the wheels along with the nuts, both wheels and the associated nuts are removedto a more secure place which means that the studs are open to the atmosphere and do indeed suffer from rust and dirt. Hence a clean up and slight lubrication on the rare occasions it is used.
In respect of the Beetle, ignoring Neil's sarky comment, the wheels are held on by bolts into the brake hub. There is therefore little chance of them becoming rusted up. Ok, there is the possibility of brake dust, but that's about all. The 220 ft lbs (213 I think actually for my Beetle, and 253 for the Type 3 Variant I once had) is actually to hold the brake hub onto the halfshaft. There was no requirement to replace these nuts once removed, unlike certain other vehicles I have looked at.
Undoing these nuts was indeed something of a pain, and as Mike says, 1/2in square drive is a bit small for 36mm A/F socket and yes, I had to use an extension to slacken them. In fact, I can remember having to jack up the car, support the extension arm on a screwjack, then lower the car hoping that the weight of the car would slacken the nut. Getting the hub off was another pain in the butt: here the trick was to remove the hub nut, replace the wheel using barely engaged bolts and use the wheel as reverse hammer to pull off the hub.
Surprisingly, I look back on those days quite fondly – I was quite a lot younger, and quite enjoyed messing about with cars. And the Beetle was actually quite reliable. Not now though, it's off to the garage every 10K.
Regards,
Peter G. Shaw