I finally looked up what my torque wrench was actually rated for after 4 years of guessing

Bought a cheap torque wrench from Harbor Freight back in 2020 just to do my brakes and never checked the calibration. Last week I was torquing down some suspension bolts on my buddy's Civic and got curious. Looked up the spec sheet online and found out it's only accurate within 20% at the low end of its range. So that 30 ft-lb I thought I was setting for years could have been anywhere from 24 to 36. Kinda wild how I just trusted it without ever verifying. Anyone else ever bother to check their torque wrench against a calibration tool or just send it like I did?

2 comments

2 Comments

lindareed18d ago

Bought my first torque wrench from Autozone in 2018 and never even looked at the box until last month. Found out it was 15% off at lower settings and I'd been doing wheel lugs around 80 ft-lbs thinking I was at 100. Honestly kinda shook me how many miles I drove on those wheels without realizing.

davidwright18d agoMost Upvoted

Yeah but 80 ft-lbs is still fine for most cars honestly. Factory spec on my old civic was like 80-90.