My buddy Sam from the shop made me rethink torque specs

I was wrenching on my '94 Miata last weekend and Sam came by. He said I was overthinking the torque wrench and that half the time factory specs are just suggestions for old hardware. He showed me his method using the 'German torque' approach on a control arm bolt and it held fine. Made me wonder how much of the spec sheet is actually useful vs just liability stuff.

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2 Comments

wren_mitchell1mo ago

Heard a guy say most factory torque specs are just accounting for lawyers anyway.

5

lee6891mo ago

@wren_mitchell has a point but does your buddy Sam ever run into issues with bolts backing out later?

1