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Used to torque oil drain plugs by feel. Not anymore.
After 12 years turning wrenches, I thought I had it down. Last spring a 2015 F-150 came back with a cracked pan, cost me $400 out of pocket. Why do so many old-timers still swear by the wrist method over a torque wrench?
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stellafisher1mo ago
Man, tell me about it. My dad still torques lug nuts by stomping on the breaker bar with his boot. I watched him sheer off a stud on a Chevy 3500 once, just because he "felt" it was tight enough. But you know what gets me? The guys who use a torque wrench on every single bolt EXCEPT the oil drain plug. Like somehow that one's a free pass. I had a buddy who did his own oil changes for 20 years, never used a torque wrench, and then one day he stripped the pan on his wife's minivan. Cost him a Saturday and a lot of yelling.
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jordan6531mo ago
That 3500 stud story is a good one, but I kind of wonder if we make too big a deal out of this stuff. I've been changing oil on my trucks for about 15 years now and I just snug the drain plug by hand with a ratchet. Never had a problem. You mentioned your buddy's minivan, @stellafisher, but that sounds like he just got a little too eager with the wrench one time. My neighbor runs a small fleet of work vans and he tells his guys to just get it "snug plus a quarter turn." They've stripped maybe two pans in ten years. I feel like if you have a feel for your own car and you're not trying to Hulk-smash everything, you're probably alright.
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