Vent: The $90 torque wrench that caused my second breakdown

Everyone raves about getting a nice torque wrench, so I picked up a digital one for 90 bucks last spring. It read way off on my brake caliper bolts, I overtorqued two of them, and one snapped clean off in the bracket. Took me a weekend with a broken extractor kit and a trip to a machine shop in Des Moines to fix it. Now I use a cheap beam style wrench from the auto parts store for 25 bucks and it's been dead on every time. Is there any reason to trust digital over beam for home use, or am I missing something?

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the_lucas21d ago

Des Moines machine shop, huh, that's a rough way to learn a lesson. I was all about digital for years, figured the extra tech had to mean better accuracy, but your story hits home. Now I grab my beam wrench first every time, it's simple and I trust it more than any fancy screen.