mikey k

Especially on my old car
Those settings are very low (1/5 of wheel nuts & 1/10 of hub nots) so make sure you get a half decent one that goes down that far.
Don't do it by hand, I know at least one owner on here that did and killed the engine in doing so
Or borrow

Dembo

I did mine recently, then checked after a few weeks and they weren't fully tight. My torque wrench is more the sort for doing up suspension bolts; I wouldn't want to use it anywhere on the engine.

What's 18lb/ft in English? A quick look at Screwfix and they have a low range (5-25Nm) for £30 I might buy.

s2konroids

I can understand where you are coming from here, 5 years servicing my own car plus my last car and I've never had anything come loose esp spark plugs/oil filters etc. One must be careful though with aluminium heads etc etc.

However there are some jobs you really need a torque wrench for, I have one which i use from time to time but not often.

jimpom23

This one starts at 10 I think which is the lowest I could find...

You're welcome to come get your hands dirty if you fancy a drive

I'm taking the intake bits apart and cleaning out the throttle body as well as whacking my map and if I feel confident maybe the IAC too...oh and checking my plugs are right too

chrispayze

If it's off the scale, you have the wrong range of torque wrench! Park do one for bikes that goes from 0-7Nm, and I have a Draper one the goes from 30-240Nm. I need one for in between really....

gbduo

Thanks! A torque wrench is an essential tool, but so is having the feel and knack of knowing how tight is tight by hand.

Certainly in my professional environment, torque wrenches are used everywhere, but not before you do it up by hand tight first!

I see what you mean about the alu heads, I think the problem with over-torque the plugs would be the differing thermal co-efficients of the hardened steel plug Vs the Alu head, which could very easily put a lot of strain on the threads.

However 18lb/ft (around 25Nm I think) is very low, with the engineers knack, that is 'feelable' using a decent, smallish T-Bar.

I don't know how much sense that would make to people though!

MB

I use a T bar on my plugs, but would actually prefer a torque wrench tbh. Advice on the NGK packet was to nip them up, then a 1/4 turn IIRC.

Ultra_Nexus

It's no wonder that at the previous 12lbs/ft, they vibrated loose.

I do them a lot tighter than 18.

jimpom23

Interestingly, it didn't come with a certificate?

It does have a clear sticker on it saying Q.C then a long number (quality control?)

Have asked question of the supplier and won't use until I know what the craic is.

Saw a review elsewhere that said it didn't come with one and he spoke to Draper who said..

"This product has a very, very basic calibration, it will need to be taken to a firm (such as A W Newmans, Tel:-0845 388 6518) to be calibrated". To which someone replied;

"Once it is calibrated though it will soon lose the calibration after plenty of use, or if the wrench is not set back to zero. The Autoexpress website did a review of torque wrenches, and while they did not review this specific model, they did review the 1/2" Draper one stating it had near-perfect accuracy. I imagine as new this tool should do a pretty accurate job of getting the torque to within a range of 10nm. Once it is used quite a bit a new one that's already calibrated is probably cheaper than recalibration"

Does that mean because it's cheap you'll need to pay extra to get calibrated or because it only deals in low torque it doesn't need to be?

gbduo

Range of +-10Nm, blimey...!!!!

So you are either going to get, at worse, 28Nm or 8Nm? Think I would do it by hand and feel for tightness.