I finally figured out why my torque wrench was lying to me

So last week I was doing a head gasket job on a 2011 F150 and kept getting weird torque readings on the same bolt pattern. Like one bolt would click at 85 ft-lbs and the next wouldnt click until 110. I was about to blame the bolts or the threads until my buddy stopped by and asked when I last calibrated my wrench. I told him I bought it 3 years ago and never thought about it. He grabbed his digital adapter and tested it, turns out my wrench was off by almost 18 percent at lower ranges. I had been torquing stuff wrong for who knows how long. I ended up renting a calibrated torque wrench from AutoZone for $35 and redoing the whole job. Has anyone else ever trusted a cheap wrench for too long and paid for it later with a come-back job?

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valc914d ago

Ngl I kinda disagree with blaming the wrench here. "Off by almost 18 percent at lower ranges" sounds like a calibration issue for sure, but a $35 rental from AutoZone isnt gonna be magic either. Those floor models get dropped and abused just as much as your home one. Maybe the real problem is you were using a click type at all for head bolts, those things are sketchy on reused threads. Ive had better luck with a beam style or just going by angle method on stuff like that.

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