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Took me 8 years to realize I was torquing spark plugs by feel, not with a wrench
I've been turning wrenches since I was 17, mostly on old Honda Civics and Accords. Last month I pulled a plug out of a 2010 Civic and found the threads were all galled up, pretty sure I had it too tight. Bought a torque wrench from Harbor Freight for $30 and started looking up the spec for that engine, 13 lb-ft. I've been over tightening them by probably double that for years, just guessing based on muscle memory. What tipped me off was a buddy with a Subaru showed me his stripped plug hole and told me he never used a torque wrench either. Has anyone else found out they've been doing a basic thing wrong for way too long and only caught it after something broke?
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martin.angela1mo ago
Relate to this SO hard. I spent YEARS doing the "snug plus grunt" method on my old Civic, convinced I had a PhD in Spark Plug Feel. Then I helped my neighbor with his Toyota and snapped a bolt off in the valve cover because I guess my "feel" was just calibrated for a 1995 Honda and nothing else. Now I own three torque wrenches for different things and still catch myself guessing on the oil drain plug because old habits die hard. At least Harbor Freight makes it cheap to be wrong.
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