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The $175 torque wrench that lied to me on a head gasket job
Picked up a cheap click style torque wrench from a parts store in Tulsa, it felt fine for months. Went to torque down a 6.0 head bolt and it clicked at 85 ft lbs when the bar was set to 130, caught it because I double checked with a beam style. The cost of a snapped bolt or warped head would have been way over a grand, so I chunked the cheap one and grabbed a CDI model for $175. Anyone else had a budget tool fail at the worst time or do you just trust the cheaper stuff on non critical stuff?
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linda_dixon4926d ago
85 lbs when you set it to 130 is a big gap, sure, but head bolts are one of the few spots where a clicker really can cost you. Most of the junk ones are just off by 10 or 15 percent across the range, which nobody notices on a valve cover or a water pump. Where did you get the beam wrench that caught it though, because those can drift too if they've been dropped. I'd almost wonder if yours was never calibrated out of the box rather than failing later.
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