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I was torquing lug nuts by feel for a solid decade before a customer's wheel nearly came off
Last Tuesday, a guy came back in a panic because his front right wheel was wobbling after I did a brake job. I pulled it off and found three lug nuts were barely finger-tight. I always just used my impact gun and gave it a final 'good and tight' pull, thinking I could feel it. Turns out, on that aluminum wheel, I was way under. I borrowed a torque wrench from the shop next door and set it to 90 ft-lbs like the manual says. The click felt totally different than my muscle memory. How many of you actually use a torque wrench for every single wheel, or is that just for the new guys?
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rodriguez.cora6mo ago
My buddy learned that lesson the hard way too.
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wadeowens4mo ago
That's what I keep telling younger guys just starting out. You can read all the forums and watch all the YouTube videos you want, but nothing beats learning from a mistake that costs you real money. It's like that first time you forget to double check the grounds and end up with a fried computer. That lesson sticks with you a lot better than any warning online ever will. The trick is to build in a simple checklist for yourself before you power anything on, even if you've done it a hundred times. Saves you from having to learn the same hard lesson twice.
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