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TIL a cheap torque wrench can cost you a transmission rebuild
Honestly, I thought I was saving money buying a $25 torque wrench from a discount auto parts store. Used it to torque the flexplate bolts on my '04 Silverado, torqued them all to 75 ft-lbs per the spec. Drove maybe 200 miles before I heard a clunk and found three bolts had backed out and one sheared off completely. Had to drop the transmission and replace the flexplate, cost me $600 in parts and a whole weekend. Anyone else learn this lesson the hard way?
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sarah1981mo ago
Read somewhere that cheap torque wrenches can be off by 20%. Not worth the gamble.
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hannaht291mo ago
That's basically what happened to me, except I didn't know it at the time. @sarah198 is right that 20% off is about average for those cheap ones. My 75 ft-lbs was probably closer to 60 or 90, which explains why those bolts loosened up or snapped. You end up spending way more on parts than you saved on the wrench.
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