The last mechanic I went to torqued these to hell…what are the chances he also tightened my spark plugs this much?
Never again…my other mechanic never overtorqued things this much.
Maybe a guy with an air tool or battery impact driver that has no torque settings.
Some are under the impression that saving 10 seconds on tightening a bolt is great, but they spend 10 minutes looking for the air hose.
I always do small stuff, and even lugnut tightening with a torque wrench. Because damaging a fastener sucks, but ruining the thread in a mating part is diasterous.
torque wrench
I love those. They give the feel of having it done right.
Got three, each a different range but they overlap.
I just got one EXACTLY to not overtorque things…guess I should have made sure that this mechanic I went to had one before I got one lol…
Oh, I’m sure he has one
forgotten somewhere behind a pile of beer, probably set to the max torque so the spring is destroyed anyway
Even better, it’s set to “loosen”, and it’s sitting right next to a cheater bar.
shudders
Yeah, a friend does car work but is an air gun and impact driver type. He broke about a 1 inch bolt that was holding some torsion suspension to the frame.
Bahahaha I know a guy who tried to save time by using an impact to tighten his oil pan bolts. All because he had the impact on hand and didn’t want to “waste time”.
So, long story short, he was looking for a new vehicle the next day.
Lol.
How do you go from needing a new oil pan to needing a new car tho, lol
Bolt broke off in the engine block. He mangled it trying to get the broken bolt out.
Ohh… Bolt, not cap…
Jesus christ.
Glad I learned my lesson to just hand it to someone else when I fuck it up lol
I had to learn … and I think most sensible people learn … the hard way.
I’ve broken several bolts over the years and now I torque wrench everything down to the 5lbf if I have to. It’s a real pain, especially if you start owning things that are 10, 20, 30 years old. The combination of aged metal that may have become weaker over time and use as well as the complication of finding the right part again (or a matching part) is just a huge headache.
I’d rather look like an uptight idiot torquing a tiny bolt than in being that guy looking for a bolt that either doesn’t exist anymore or is buried in a wrecking yard somewhere far away.
We need to start outdoor photos of people holding their torque wrenches, being more popular than pictures of guys holding their guns.
yea, probably… I went to an electrician and he gets mechanic work done somewhere else. I bet they did it.
I had a guy putting tires on one of our heavy trucks and I went out in the yard to see how he was making out just as I hear buppa-buppa-buppa-fuck!
He’s broken off a 7/8" wheel stud with his fucking 1" air gun, putting the over-nut on and ugga-duggaing the fuck out of it for some goddamn reason. Shrugs his shoulders and tells me it must have been broken already (it wasn’t, break was shiny all the way through). He’s got another one broken off on the ground beside him. Asks me if it’s ok with 8 out of 10 (on duallies, ffs). I send him home and take the drums off and pound out the studs.
It’s too damn often where I spend just as much time fixing mechanic’s fuckups as I would have to do it myself. Had a Deere mechanic do some insurance-funded work on a combine I blew up so we’d get warranty, I swear he didn’t own a torque wrench. Had to tear it down and re-torque nearly every bolt.
I hate it when supposed professionals don’t even have DYI’er tools and / or knowledge…
Lool deere guys are one of the worst. Each time they send me their kid with a laptop who shits the bed because he actually has to turn a wrench. Or the laptop won’t tell him what ecm to replace before he replaces the entire wire harnesses the next day because it didn’t fix it. Fuck they look at me like I’m a retard when I try to tell these guys about hydraulic injection. “They never told us about that”… last time I told them, if your going to send me your fucking apprentices m, I’m going to write you an invoice for my time wasted. Had one deere guy tell me. “They don’t let us do any welding repairs, because if it can be fixed by welding then it’s a part they can’t sell.”
It seems like the only job requirements for a deere guy is show up and be able fog a mirror.
I moved to ag country recently and all I know is fuck Deere. Thank you for confirming my hate towards them
Brother, I have delt with many many of them. Deere, Cat, doosan/bobcat , libbehr, sennebogen. Case, jcb, genie, They all absofukingloutley suck. Particularly in north America it’s fucking pathetic. They shown up in their shiny ass service trucks. Come out with their ego like get out the way I’m a professional you have no business touching this because you are some somenfuckinn shmoe. Then i have spend my entire fucking day babysitting the ignorant punk. To get a bulshit diagnosis that’s completely wrong because the guy doesn’t even know how to read the damn service information to get it right.
Budy, I kid you not. I had to teach one guy how to use his damn multimeter properly to check continuity on a wire.
If you have a piece of equipment that is internationally made. Like Europe or aisia. Call them instead of the local dealer. I’ve gotten better and faster results from a 10 min phone call than 8hr day with a local.
Hell I only ever call those dealer guys when it’s something I simply can’t do, like injector cut out tests or I just don’t have time for it and I regret it the second I see the guy roll up.
Not long ago. I had a cat guy come, needed to verify hui pump on a 3126b. Yes it’s the pump. I give him okay to swap for a new one. I had one in a spare parts machine with a rebuild motor. I pull out the spare by the time i finish the guy is still trying to get the lines off. Day later after he put it in, the damn thing is falling out oil everywhere. Fuck it’s goddam - 20c and a snow storm and we need the machine next morning.
Lmao exactly aligns with the stories from the farmers at my pub. Got a good chuckle out of the anecdote about needing it before a snow storm and the techy being slow.
Goes to show what book smarts with no street smarts will get ya. That multimeter is scary if it’s your first time using it!
Unless it involves warranty on something expensive, we just do it ourselves and if we need a CANbus address programmed in, I call them out to do that for the minimum charge. If I do get them to do something, I check it after pretty closely.
Had a guy out to install a turbo on our 7630; he hadn’t tightened the collar for the oil supply, if you can believe it. I did talk to the service manager about that one, that was pretty egregious. Like really, on a turbo, keeping that oil bearing pressured is probably the only critical thing to watch for.
The kind of mechanic who only needs one wrench: the impact wrench.
I hate that. Here in sweden nearly every shop does that to the wheel bolts. Pneumatic impact wrench at max. 1st thing home is doing it right. Otherwise I have no chanse whatsoever if I run a flat. I have to use a 1 meter (over 3 foot) long bar to do that, and it still takes much effort. I finaly found a decent mechanic with some sense.
I have to use a 1 meter (over 3 foot) long bar to do that, and it still takes much effort.
I got myself one of these, and now that’s easy. Definitely one of my favorite tools. Even if I don’t end up using it all that often, it saves so much effort and work when I do need it.
Though you’d probably want a 240v version in Sweden.
Considered one of those a few times. I have an air wench from stanley. The only tool I regretted buying. Could not even dent butter on a warm sunny day (/s). Bought an wider hose, modded the wrench… much better but still not good.
Maybe time to go electric then …
IMO, electric is so much more convenient, especially corded electric. Just plug it in, and it’s ready to go, every time. No worrying about air pressure or hose length, no worrying about batteries being able to hold their charge or not. It’s as simple as can be and just always works.
(Though, actually, the first one I got had a defective trigger switch on it and stopped working after the first few times. But I was able to return it and get a replacement. Though the replacement looked the same, they’d definitely updated the trigger switch because it felt different to press – firmer and more clicky. And the replacement one has been 100% reliable since then.)
I worked at a professional oil change shop for about 5 months back in 2005. Texaco, if you must know, but regardless…
One thing they completely forbid is any electric tools, those can cause a spark and potentially an explosion. Every tool we used was air powered (or simple hand powered), with the air pump and massive air tank off in another room altogether.
Granted, we weren’t torquing starter bolts or lug nuts or anything like that, but still, a properly equipped shop will have one or more air impacts complete with torque limit settings. And even then they’re supposed to slightly under-torque the air impact, and finish torquing with a manual torque wrench.
One thing they completely forbid is any electric tools, those can cause a spark and potentially an explosion.
True … but for the amateur mechanic, you’ll probably be fine as long as you avoid using electric tools near any major fuel leaks.
Dropping a steel wrench on a concrete floor can cause a spark. Why would you shop have flammable liquids without proper storage?
Air tools are cheaper. The spark issue is bullshit.
Our shop had 4 massive 500 gallon proper steel tanks to store most of our common fluids, stored down in the pit. There isn’t a single dry spot of pavement in the pit, there’s always a thin layer of oil on the floor, and top side floor was coated with rubber tread grip, so hard pressed to have a dropped tool generate a spark either in the pit or top side.
The air tools thing was mostly about powering the pumps on those massive tanks, plus the occasional customer that comes in for an oil change but doesn’t know they have a fuel leak…
I had a wheel rebalanced at a tire shop chain. I saw the kid who wasn’t trained to know better use an impact gun to put the wheel back on. Fast forward to fall I come to change to my winter tires and three of the five wheel nuts won’t go back on for that corner.
Fortunately the local dealership had some in stock but next time I need something done in a shop like that I’m bringing them the wheel detached from my car.
bringing them the wheel detached from my car
I do that whenever I can. It’s a bit more work, but saves the irritation (although anger is probably closer). for things can get damaged with over tightening. But some jobs they take off one or more wheels and if it’s not the shop in my town, I go over the wheel bolts.
Costco only uses torque wrenches, and you have to come back after a day to get torque checked again.
jesus christ, I hate how stupid people are
I don’t think it’s just Sweden. I think all mechanic shops do it, they’re just too lazy. They do the same shit here.
Tighten most lugs above 100ft pounds and they will strip.
One things for sure, fixing this won’t be dull lol
Hahaha
I suspect that once the valve cover is off, OP is going to find that bolt is seized in there.
And trying to get it out may strip the threads out of the aluminum.
BTDT
Had an oil drain plug bolt overtightened so hard once I stripped that sucker getting it out so bad I had to buy a replacement. The cost of just quick taking it in because I didn’t have the time cost me an extra $20. Never again.
what are you even supposed to do in this case? Lots of WD-40 and tap with a hammer lightly?
There are two possible solutions for fucked-up oil drainplug threads:
A) Drill the hole out slightly larger, tap new threads into it, and install a slightly larger drain plug.
B) Replace the oil pan entirely.
Option A isn’t always possible, especially if the oil pan is curvy, very thin, or made of plastic. And either option requires removing the drain pan from the vehicle and reinstalling one with a new gasket. (You don’t want metal shavings getting into the engine when you’re drilling and tapping.)
You can drill and tap or helicoil in place, just flush the pan with a liter of oil.
What the hell are filters for then? Rust proofing the frame and engine bay?
If you end up rounding off the head there are a few options. They make special sockets that can grab onto a rounded off bolt. You can try to hammer on a slightly smaller socket. You could drill the head off of the bolt and use an extractor to pull the remnants out, but you risk breaking off the extractor and then you’re in a real pickle. You could also weld a nut onto the bolt, but not recommended with a full oil pan. You can also take a hammer and chisel and try to get the bolt to turn using it at an angle, not recommended if you have an aluminum oil pan. You could also just buy an oil extractor and pull the oil through the dipstick tube.
I don’t have any of these issues because I change the oil in all my cars and can read a service manual.
In my case I had rounded off the bolt head in a few spots with an open ended wrench after a few tries not realizing it was going to be stubborn. Had a hard time getting the correct sized close ended wrench on with the warped sides. Went up a size by switching to metric and getting a decently good grip. That stripped it further, but warped the head even more so I was able to get the right sized closed wrench on it with a few “gentle” taps of a hammer. It juuuuuuust barely came off. The head was mutilated to hell.
I’ve seen people use a grinder to grind down the sides of the head and use a smaller wrench to try again. Or cut a plus in the head and try a screwdriver. But that’s assuming the head hasn’t popped off yet.
Impact driver, but the bolt could snap.
Actual oil pan bolt torque is lower than people think, but a fresh crush washer should be used every time.
Now Fords use plastic oil pans, which should be fun with those gorillas.
Thank got almost nothing is plastic in this car.
To be fair, those bolts suck in general.
Steel bolts going into aluminum have some kind of corrosion that makes them seize more often. Stainless bolts reduces this.
Then fucking Allen/hex head - damn things strip out if you look at them funny.
I’m a big fan of never seize or blue loctite with bolts like these. Both help prevent seizing.
