Bought a $150 torque wrench from a big box store, snapped a bolt on my F-150 on a Sunday afternoon in Phoenix. Took the wrench back Monday and the clerk laughed at me.

I was changing my lower control arm bushings in the driveway, 105 degrees out. Set the wrench to 90 ft-lbs like the manual said, and the bolt head twisted clean off. Took the wrench back to Home Depot and the guy at the returns counter said 'you probably overtightened it' before even looking at it. I asked if their return policy covers snap-on failures and he just shrugged. Ended up buying a used Snap-on from a pawn shop for $80 that's never let me down. Anyone else notice store brand torque tools are basically toys?

2 comments

2 Comments

brianm271d ago

You ever notice how store brand tools feel like they're made of melted down garden furniture? That $150 Husky or Kobalt wrench probably had bad QC from the factory... the click mechanism might not even be calibrated right. Same thing happened to me with a Pittsburgh torque wrench from Harbor Freight. Snapped a head bolt on my old Silverado and the manager told me 'you get what you pay for.' Found a beat up Proto at a flea market for forty bucks and it's still dead on after three years. Sometimes the cheap stuff just doesn't hold up under real heat and stress.

nora1841d agoMost Upvoted

Bet you could've torqued that bolt by feel and been fine, torque wrenches are overkill half the time anyway. Are you sure you didn't just cross-thread it?