Spent $60 on a cheap torque wrench from Amazon. Big mistake.

Grabbed a no-name torque wrench for $60 to save cash and it snapped a bolt on my neighbor's Civic doing a simple head gasket job. Ended up costing me $300 in extractor bits and a machine shop visit. Anyone else have a cheap tool cost them way more than the good one would have?

2 comments

2 Comments

angela_morgan6d ago

Switched to a beam-style torque wrench and never looked back after snapping bolts with a clicker.

felixhenderson6d ago

Oh man, you're speaking my language @angela_morgan. I've been down that same road with clickers and it's frustrating when you're right at the end of a bolt and it just snaps clean off. Beam wrenches are way more predictable once you get used to reading the needle. The thing people forget is that clickers need regular calibration or they start drifting, especially if you drop them one time. For stuff like head bolts or critical chassis work I'll take a beam every time even if it takes a bit longer to get the angle right.