That guy from the shop told me to stop using impact guns on lugnuts and I fought him for months

Old timer at the shop, Mike, kept yelling at me about torquing lugnuts by hand. I thought he was just being a boomer stuck in his ways because I'd been using the impact for 2 years with no issues. Then last month I had a Camry come back with a warped rotor because I overtorqued the hell out of it with the gun. Cost me 4 hours of labor to replace the rotor and pads for free. Has anyone else had to learn this lesson the expensive way?

2 comments

2 Comments

pat95429d ago

My buddy Dave at a tire shop stripped the studs on a brand new F-250 using his impact gun. Ended up having to replace all 8 studs and the hub assembly out of his own pocket. He uses a torque wrench every single time now.

caseywest27d ago

Mike's not wrong, and that Camry is the exact wakeup call most of us need. Torque sticks are a cheap fix if you're dead set on using the gun, but even those need to be checked with a real torque wrench every so often. The trick is to set the gun on its lowest setting and then finish with the wrench, especially on aluminum wheels or anything with a hub centric design. You can get away with slamming them on steel rims for years, then one bad day with a rusty stud or a soft rotor and you're eating the cost. Also, check your torque wrench calibration once a year, drop it once and it's garbage. That 4 hours hurts, but it's cheaper than the F-250 guy's hub job.