I guess Jamie Sommers would have no problem tightening to
18 foot-pounds using her right arm ;-) Thanks for the tip.
Unfortunately, my Craftsman torque wrench only goes as low as 20 foot-pounds, and it's not very accurate at the very low and very high ends of its torque range (20 to 150 ft-lbs). I bought it just to tighten the wheel nuts to 76 foot-pounds.
Plus, I think it would probably be unwieldy trying to use the long Craftsman clicker underneath the car. I guess I should just use a regular 6-point wrench to tighten the oil drain plug, but how many turns would 18 foot-pounds be after the nut makes contact with the oil pan? The number of turns is not mentioned in the official Toyota repair manual at CamryManuals.com. It just says to tighten to 18 foot-pounds.
The repair manual does say to tighten the oil filter three-quarters of a turn after the oil filter gasket makes contact with the housing seat.
Built_Well wrote in news:472ccee6$0$68490$ snipped-for-privacy@auth.newsreader.octanews.com:
Go to the grocery store and pick up a 10lb bag of potatoes. That's (very roughly) what 10 ft-lbs of torque feels like. You don't need to be the Bionic Woman (or Man) to apply 18 ft-lbs to a fastener.
Then get a cheap beam-type. They are good enough down to less than 5 lbs.
You're getting a bit hung up on precision in a place where precision is not essential. There's quite a bit of leeway on an oil drain bolt between overtightening and undertightening. What you need to do is learn the approximately correct range of proper torque, and that comes with experience.
You need to do some experimentation with tightening bolts with a torque wrench and without until you get the "feel" of it, and learn to associate certain types of "feel" with where the fastener's tightening torque is demonstrably correct. Once you get the "feel" down, you can tighten lots of fasteners without a torque wrench and they will neither strip nor leak nor fall off.
There's a point with many (all?) fasteners where the turning effort sort of "ramps up" all of a sudden. That sudden ramp-up is a guide to when to stop turning the wrench. The people who break or strip fasteners are those who aren't paying attention to that ramp-up feeling.
Bear in mind that there are many fastener applications that require very precise torque settings. The "approximate feel" method is NOT okay in ALL cases. The oil drain bolt is one case where "approximate" is OK. Except on Hondas...
It is. I use a regular 14mm combo wrench and tighten by "feel".
12-pointer is fine. A six-pointer would be used in applications where a 12-pointer might strip a corroded or seized bolt. An oil drain bolt is not usually seized.
See above.
Different situations and *very* different gasketing methods.
Imagine that. The Craftsman beam-type torque wrench at Sears has a lifetime warranty, but the clicker only has one year.
Since so many Craftsman clickers break easily, I guess somebody probably goofed somewhere when they designed the thing.
Somebody writing at the Sears.com's review page for this item said his adjusting handle came off when the retaining nut loosened. "A little threadlock or a nut with a nylon insert would have prevented this from happening," he wrote.
Anyway, I guess I'll pick up the lifetime-warranted Craftsman beam-type torquer for the 18 foot-pound drain plug.
I wouldn't want to remove the pan! I'd have to spend way too much time underneath the 1.5-ton car. I gotta wonder if crawling under that thing while it was on jack stands is the most dangerous thing I've ever done?
I read here in the archive that people are sometimes found lying dead underneath their cars. That's dangerous business.
I have never seen anyone use a torque wrench on an oil pan drain plug, an unless you plan on rebuilding your engine or transmission, don't waste your money on another torque wrench.
The 3/8" torque wrench is only $25.00 IIRC, Built Well is a body builder. From all appearances, Built Well has absolutely NO experience
-or- intuition WRT things mechanical. He needs -something- to help him get a feel for how tight things should be tightened. One should NEVER discourage the use of a proper tool when performing ANY automotive job, especially with someone _this_ inexperienced. Built Well may decide to delve into other such lofty pursuits as changing his spark plugs, replacing his valve cover gasket(s), replacing his brake pads and rotors, T-belt and water pump.
Disclaimers: yeah, you me and the expert next door don't need a torque wrench to do an oil change...
I think he can probably get a feel with the beam-type wrench, then be able to go on and do the rest of it by hand.
BUT... the truth is that a light torque wrench is a great tool that you'll need for something else sooner or later... and someday you might just find yourself rebuilding your engine or transmission. $25 is a small price to pay for being able to change out your valve cover gaskets when they start leaking, which they will.
Amen. And we were all that inexperienced once.
The REDUCE TARIFF light is illuminated on my dashboard. Does this mean Japanese cars cost too much?
Mark A., you're becoming quite a pest. Why don't you make yourself useful and tell us about some of your same-sex experiences. How many men have you been with and when was the last time? You must miss the rough caress of a man's hands [LOL]
My SWAG is yes, I couldn't tell you for sure because I have never used a torque wrench on a drain plug.
The drain plug bolt only has to be tight enough so that it doesn't leak or back out. Toyota uses a fiber drain plug gasket that will compress when the bolt is tightened, making for a pretty leak-proof setup. My local Toyota dealer tosses in a drain plug gasket for each oil filter I buy, and since I rarely replace the gasket, I've accumulated about a dozen spares.
A fairly common mistake is for people to tighten the bolt as tightly as they can get it, and that can strip the treads, and the gasket gets mushed so it definitely needs replacement.
"Ray O" wrote in news:tOudnQiH8uPTY7DanZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:
Failure to use a torque wrench on a Honda engine oil drain bolt (just as a for-instance) results in inevitable stripping of the oil pan threads. Honda oil pans are notoriously fragile.
I consider a torque wrench an indispensable tool, especially for the home mechanic.
I use my Sears or my old beam-type for all the fasteners I can use them on. I only forego the torque wrench in cases where I can't get a torque wrench on the fastener for one reason or another, or in the odd case where "approximate" is OK and I am very familiar with how it should "feel", such as many oil drain bolts.
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