TIL I had my torque wrench set to the wrong scale for 8 years

I was torquing the lug nuts on my Civic last Saturday and my neighbor asked why I was reading 100 on the ft-lb side when the spec calls for 80. Turns out I was reading the newton-meter numbers the whole time, so every bolt I have ever "tightened" has been way too loose. Any of you ever catch yourself on something this basic?

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the_nina8d ago

Actually the newton-meter scale is higher, so 100 Nm would be about 74 ft-lbs. So you've been under-tightening by a bit, but not as bad as you think.

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