TIL a torque wrench that sits in its case set to 80 ft-lbs can drift almost 12% in a year

Lily Jenkins · 2026-10-07T03:15:04.08602+00:00

I sent my 3/8 drive wrench out to a calibration shop in Mesa last Tuesday and the sheet came back showing it was reading 11.4% high, which means every head bolt I did on that 2.2 Ecotec this spring got less clamp load than I thought. I always stored it clicked down to zero, but the guy on the phone said the spring still creeps if the case sits in a truck cab that hits 130 degrees in an Arizona summer. How often are you all actually sending yours in, because I was going off the old "once a year if it gets dropped" rule and that clearly is not enough.

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TIL a torque wrench that sits in its case set to 80 ft-lbs can drift almost 12% in a year | Auto Mechanics - Librear