Originally Posted By: Vikas
Well, he does have a valid point. Anybody wrenching on the car needs to be able to differentiate between
1) How tight spark plug should be ~15 ft-lb
2) How tight lug nut should be ~80 ft-lb
3) Everything else ~40 ft-lb
*without* absolutely needing a torque wrench. Obviously, there are special cases where a torque wrench is a must but majority of car repairs can be done without torque wrench.
To take this particular tie-rod end case, ff instead of 27 ft-lb, it was torqued to 40 ft-lb, nothing bad will happen.
Sure, majority of anything CAN be done without the right tools. But if you have the tools why wouldn't you use them? If you are talking about the tie rod ball joint castle nut, yes something bad will happen. They are specifically NOT meant to be over-torqued.
Once again, NOBODY is a human click wrench - I don't care how skilled they think they are. Even if they did get it spot on, they surely won't be able to reproduce it in a consistent manner.
I can't tell the difference, and I certainly should be working on my own car.