Found out my torque wrench was lying to me over 5 ft-lbs, and I'd been using it on head bolts

Betty Roberts · 2026-10-17T10:05:04.858126+00:00

So I got a cheap torque wrench tester from a guy on Craigslist in Toledo about 6 months back, mostly just to mess around in the shop. I finally ran my old 1/2 inch clicker through it last week and at 80 ft-lbs it was clicking at almost 86. That's a 7 percent error, and I'd torqued the head bolts on my brother's 5.3 with it last summer. I always figured a click is a click, but the tester showed mine was off at both ends, low at 30 and high at 80. I checked the manual and sure enough the spec is plus or minus 4 percent, and mine was double that. Now I'm second guessing every job I did with it over the past two years. Anyone here actually send theirs out for calibration, or do you just buy new ones once they start drifting?

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Found out my torque wrench was lying to me over 5 ft-lbs, and I'd been using it on head bolts | Auto Mechanics - Babble Community