My uncle's one sentence about my torque wrench made me stop guessing

I used to just crank lug nuts until they felt tight, figured that was good enough. My uncle watched me do my brakes last spring in his driveway in Columbus and said 'you're either gonna strip the stud or lose a wheel, pick one.' Turns out I was overtorquing by a lot, probably 140 ft-lbs instead of the 80 my Civic needed. He made me borrow his click-style torque wrench and I felt that little click at 80 and it was way less effort than I thought. Now I actually look up the spec for every job and I keep a sticky note inside my tool box with the common sizes. That one comment probably saved me from a wreck or a ruined hub, no joke. Anyone else get corrected by a relative and change their whole approach? What was your 'oh crap' moment?

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1 Comment

perez.mia23d ago

That click at 80 ft-lbs, did it feel way looser than you expected?