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DAE see people torque lug nuts to 150 ft-lbs on a compact car because the impact gun says so?
Watched a guy at a tire shop in Reno hammer five lugs onto a Civic with a 1/2 inch impact and call it done, no torque wrench in sight. I asked what spec he was hitting and he just said 'tight is tight.' That car calls for 80 ft-lbs, so he was basically double spec on aluminum wheels. Six months later those studs stretch, the wheel walks, and you're the one on the shoulder of I-80 wondering what happened. I check mine with a $25 click wrench every single rotation now. Does anyone know why shops keep skipping the wrench, is it just time or do they really think impacts are accurate?
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margaret69221d ago
I used to be the guy who figured the impact was close enough and a torque wrench was just extra time we didn't have. Then I watched a buddy's F-150 come back with warped rotors and two studs snapped off, all from ugga duggas on a truck that wanted 150. Turns out the shop air pressure and the socket size change everything, so there's no way the gun is hitting a set number each time. Some of these guys know it's wrong and just don't care because flat rate pays for speed, not for doing it right. What got me was pulling my own wheels and finding one lug at 40 and the next at 130 on the same wheel, and I never felt a thing while driving. Now the wrench sits in the console and it takes me two minutes per wheel.
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