Pro tip: That 3/8 torque wrench you keep at 90 ft-lbs is lying to you because you never wound it back down
I pulled apart a 2008 Civic front end in my Bay City shop 3 weeks ago and every single bolt on the lower control arm was 15 to 20 ft-lbs looser than the spec sheet says it should be. Turns out leaving a click-type wrench loaded for 6 months lets the spring inside take a set, and it throws the whole scale off, which I proved with a beam wrench borrowed from the guy in the next bay. So how many of you are actually backing your wrenches off to zero at the end of the day, or am I the only one who learned this the hard way at 42?
Man, this hits home. I never used to back mine off either and learned the same lesson the same way, except it was a head bolt job that went sideways on me. Click wrenches are handy but that spring will absolutely take a set if you leave it loaded. Now I unwind everything to zero before it goes back in the drawer, every single time. Cheap habit that saves you a whole lot of grief down the road.