"tightened to the specified torque"

One semi-grunt should be enough.

I very much doubt it. More critical bolts maybe, but maybe not too :-/

You can get very tight by hand with a long enough scaffold pole over the end of the spanner........

It's about tightening them enough that they don't come loose, and so they hold the cover properly, but don't stretch or strip the threads.

Correct torque is probably quite low for those bolts.

Certain bolts have to be torqued properly. Others rely on a mechanic's inbuilt torque wrench which tells him when a bolt is tight enough. I have one since I was trained from the age of 16 to fix cars but the mechanically inept/unsympathetic can easily strip threads or damage components if they're not careful which is why Haynes give the torque settings for lots of minor bolts.

Si

=============================== If it's anything like the cover(s) on the 106 it's just a plastic cover with torques varying between 5, 6 and 7 ft/lbs, so no great force required.

Cic.

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For a non critical component like a timing belt cover, I guess most good mechanics would tighten the bolts, simply by feel, according to their size, and the material they screw into.

On a cover, or any smaller bolts, say under 8mm, it would be more about not overtightening. IME many so called engineers seem to think that the tighter they can get a bolt the better. Consequently any bolt smaller than 8mm, especially if srewed into ally, are very often stripped. It's possibly why many rocker covers on ally heads are retained with phillips screws. It's not so easy to strip even a small thread with just a screwdriver.:-) Mike.

Indeed. I'm thinking back several years to when I changed the clutch on my

1.1 litre Mk3 Escort. It said something like 13Nm for the clutch plate to flywheel bolts, and I had no idea what 13Nm felt like (I understood the physics of what a Nm was, just not how it translated into milligrunts), so I kept on tightening it, not wanting to do it up too loose.

One person (my mate's Dad) said "nah, don't worry about it - I've seen clutches held in with just two bolts before - it'll be fine". A neighbour of mine, who's an experienced engineer dealing with aeronautical parts, said that I'd better get the flywheel off and drill it out, because if it vibrates loose it'll completely ruin the clutch plates. I'll let you guess who's advice I took.

I then got myself down to Halfords and got myself a torque wrench, as the bolts holding the flywheel onto the engine were definitely *not* things I wanted either wrongly torqued up, or unevenly torqued.

AstraVanMan ( snipped-for-privacy@whataloadofforeskinbollocks.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Your dad, because his advice sounded like less work.

Did it fall apart?

AstraVanMan ( snipped-for-privacy@whataloadofforeskinbollocks.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

And break the habit of a lifetime?

Nah, there's a formula - Up to shear and back half a turn.

Steve

Thanks for responses everyone.

Generally speaking the bigger the bolt/screw the higher the torque needed. What does Haynes list as the torque figure? If it's 8 ftlbs then thats

8 pounds of force on the end of a foot long spanner.

Don't they all sound like old tractors?

To give helpful answers:

A decent garage will use a torque wrench and do it properly. Some lower torque bolts on non-critical areas like plastic covers are often guessed - a practiced mechanic can be very accurate at guessing torque. A ham fisted one can shear off a bolt in your head.

It depends on the bolt in question. Usually a specified torque is dependant on the application of the bolt and is based on its diameter, thread pitch, loads, vibrations etc. If its for a cover it will be just a nice hand tight nip up to stop it coming loose and not too tight as to shear the bolt/strip threads. If its a head bolt its to stop the head being blown off by the engine and so needs to be a lot tighter and very specific.