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My torque wrench lied to me on I-95 and I learned the hard way

Last month I was driving my old F-150 down I-95 near Richmond and heard this nasty clunk from the rear end. Pulled over, checked the lug nuts on the passenger side, and three of them were loose. Turns out my torque wrench was way off, it clicked like it was set right but it was really under by about 20 foot pounds. I had rotated the tires that morning in my driveway, maybe over torqued them too. So I drove 40 miles with wobbling wheels and luckily nothing snapped. Now I always do a recheck after 50 miles with a fresh wrench from AutoZone. Has anyone else trusted a torque wrench for too long and paid for it?
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2 Comments
holly709
holly7091d ago
Quit trusting anything that clicks and started re-torquing by feel with a breaker bar, at least that way I only blame my own stupidity. Your wrench was just homesick for the calibration bench.
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torres.blair
Nah, clicks are just fine if you actually test the damn thing once in a while.
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