Socket size for wheel lug nuts - 2023 Mirage

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Originally Posted by Fummins

YEah, something's not right there...^ Maybe she's using a 1/4" drive torque wrench with a 6" long handle? Who knows. Too tight or too loose=bad time.

I'm all for do-it-yourselfers but some of the posts I've read lately regarding the reversible-ratchet function of a ratchet and having brakes fail after attempting to replace them is kinda concerning. Entertaining though but I'd rather not see someone's wheel or car crash into someone else cause they are cheap(a cheap Mirage owner?), stubborn, and don't know how to do something properly.

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We all have to start somewhere. If I handed my smartphone to one of driving students, they would make me feel stupid when it comes to technology real fast.

That's why I helped my 80 year old mom buy her first smartphone for Christmas. Helping her figure it out has made me feel smart again!

I must admit that I chuckled inside when I read the ratchet wrench post, but we all really do start somewhere. I was blessed or cursed to grow up on a farm where my dad was around 24/7. Not everyone grew up that way, & I try to not lose sight of that.

Regardless, no one wants loose tires flying down the highway!

Well gang, I did something I thought would never happen in my lifetime. I bought the cheap $24.xx torque wrench from our version of Harbor Freight, Princess Auto. The first thing I noticed when I picked it up was the solid feel in my hand. If I have to whack on frozen bolts this thing should take some abuse. No, really, it feels OK. It's made in Taiwan where they have good foundries and know how to make tools. For the most part. I'll toss this in the back with a couple of sockets, one for my car and one for my trailers. I lucked out trailer wise, same size coupler, same lights, same tire size so I can now handle flats on anything I own.

$25. Unreal, but this same wrench has been their go to cheap torque and has been as low as $16 in the recent past. You can't buy a name brand breaker bar for that money. Attachment 24673

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Originally Posted by Wallythacker

Well gang, I did something I thought would never happen in my lifetime. I bought the cheap $24.xx torque wrench from our version of Harbor Freight, Princess Auto. The first thing I noticed when I picked it up was the solid feel in my hand. If I have to whack on frozen bolts this thing should take some abuse. No, really, it feels OK. It's made in Taiwan where they have good foundries and know how to make tools. For the most part. I'll toss this in the back with a couple of sockets, one for my car and one for my trailers. I lucked out trailer wise, same size coupler, same lights, same tire size so I can now handle flats on anything I own.

$25. Unreal, but this same wrench has been their go to cheap torque and has been as low as $16 in the recent past. You can't buy a name brand breaker bar for that money.

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Someone testing/reviewing the cheap Harbor Freight torque wrenches. The 1/2" drive did pretty well. The 3/8" drive wasn't very impressive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iAsrNttLfA

I like his conclusion. Would I use them on my lawnmower? Yes. Would I use them on my airplane? Hell NO!


Since torque wrenches should not be used to remove lug nuts, bolts, or whatever, I wouldn't bother carrying one in my car. If I have a flat tire, I just want a decent cheap tire wrench.

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Originally Posted by Mark

Someone testing/reviewing the cheap Harbor Freight torque wrenches. The 1/2" drive did pretty well. The 3/8" drive wasn't very impressive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iAsrNttLfA

I like his conclusion. Would I use them on my lawnmower? Yes. Would I use them on my airplane? Hell NO!


Since torque wrenches should not be used to remove lug nuts, bolts, or whatever, I wouldn't bother carrying one in my car. If I have a flat tire, I just want a decent cheap tire wrench.

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Well, Canadians, Princess Auto has dropped the price of the torque wrench I bought down to $19.95! I have verified my wrench against both my $500 Gray and my $100 adapter and it's within 1.5% of them both. So color me impressed. What isn't known is long term stability. If you use a torque wrench on your tires 2-3 times a year you develop a good feel for what 80 ft. lb. feels like and after a few uses you know when it's going to click.

As long as these wrenches are stored unlocked at minimum settings and not dropped they should not go out of whack. I did fail to mention, and it's my bad, that if you have alloy wheels proper torque is needed to make sure you don't crack the wheels.

I've seen a few gorilla types even bend steel Cragar SS rims back in the day. They must have reefed like nuts on breaker bars and likely had 250+ lb. of torque on their wheels. 250 lb. gorilla on a 2' breaker could yield 500 ft.lb. of torque. Ouch.

One last edit:

When you get a new torque wrench and have nothing to compare it to the following test is good enough to start.

Set your wrench to 20-25 ft. lb. Most every 1/2" drive wrench will go that low. Measure the length of your wrench. It will likely be increments of 6", starting at 18" for a 1/2" drive, you might have a 24" wrench.

Use a breaker bar to back off one lug nut. Now the hard part. locate a smallish item that weighs 10-12 lb. if you have a 24" wrench. Locate a smallish item 13-16 lb. if your wrench is 18". Ankle weights are ideal for this if you can get enough weight.

By hand tighten the lug till you feel resistance. I doubt you are strong enough to generate too much torque by just your fingers. Mount your torque wrench. Slowly place your weight on the end of the wrench. Again ankle weights hang nicely. If your weight is above the setting on your wrench you should plainly hear the "click" as the torque is reached. If your weights are a bit light once they are hung on you may have to push down slightly on the wrench. Most folks can guesstimate pushing 3-5 lb. pretty good. As you add pressure to the wrench wait to hear the "click".

There's all sorts of variables, you can use more weight if you have it but keep it down to 50lb. or less. The goal is to make sure your wrench "clicks" when a pre-selected torque is reached. Don't forget to do the math. an 18" wrench means you need 1.5x the weight of the actual ft. lb. setting. A 24" wrench is half the weight, so 12 lb. on the wrench translates to 24 lb. of torque.

Forums are full of folks who never checked out their new wrench and snapped off a critical bolt in an engine or other expensive item. I know of a guy that snapped a bolt in a Lycoming 600 hp turboprop aircraft engine, costing him $2500 and this was in the 90's.

I use torque sticks. I compared them to my fap-off torque wrench and they were accurate enough for what I use them for. I do hand torque and re-torque dually wheels and aluminum wheels.

I helped someone swap over wheels this past fall. I used their torque wrench(I can't recall the brand)initially, it felt like way more torque was required than normal. It was professionally re-calibrated for aircraft use within the last 3 years and has hardly been used since. Always stored properly(set to zero), never dropped etc....
I compared it to mine and it appeared to be clicking at 20-30ft lb higher than it was set to. We compared the off one to a third cheapo torque wrench and it read the same as the fap-off wrench. We found that interesting and scary.

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Originally Posted by Fummins

I use torque sticks. I compared them to my fap-off torque wrench and they were accurate enough for what I use them for. I do hand torque and re-torque dually wheels and aluminum wheels.

I helped someone swap over wheels this past fall. I used their torque wrench(I can't recall the brand)initially, it felt like way more torque was required than normal. It was professionally re-calibrated for aircraft use within the last 3 years and has hardly been used since. Always stored properly(set to zero), never dropped etc....
I compared it to mine and it appeared to be clicking at 20-30ft lb higher than it was set to. We compared the off one to a third cheapo torque wrench and it read the same as the fap-off wrench. We found that interesting and scary.

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Yikes. That's why I do a simple calibration test like I suggested at least once a year. Takes me all of 5 minutes to test my wrenches. I can even do it faster if I just compare them against my all electronic piezo based adapter. It has been within 1 ft. lb. since the day I brought it home 14 years ago. Wow, it's been awhile. Anyhow, one day it may go out of whack and I can still use the weight method.

Speaking of, I read some Amazon reviews on a nice looking Craftsman 1/2" 24" long. There's a huge defective batch with improper heat treating. The drive coupler just twists off with moderate torque. There's another batch of these things that will not click and there's a HUGE number of guys with ruined everything because of course they set it, pulled on it, no click, pulled some more and sheared off the bolt. yikes. Craftsman was up there with Snap-on IMO, even better because of the value they provided, My Sears unforgivable error was failing to snag one of their 900pc sets which went on clearance every summer, during the dog days. It would be stupid low, like $149.99 for a $1,199.99 set. I kept telling myself, next year I won't forget. Ya. That all stopped when they disco'd the huge set. My tools are a good mix of Craftsman, Gray, Snap-on (not much, a couple oddball tools that didn't sell well and were disco'd cheap). Oh, I have a fair bit of MAC stuff also. Fine tools they are. Oh and Proto. Geez, guess I have some of everything.

Now, I don't think I'd bother getting an exchange if a Craftsman tool broke, I'm sure the replacement would be some lower quality chinese thing that would round off the first stubborn nut it encountered and leave me fuming, No, that's what cheap tools do and I'm not going there.

I love torque sticks. I would use them all the time if I ever find them. I bought a nice set from Sears ages ago. I can't find them in an of my tool chests. I probably loaned them to someone and forgot.

So I got a call from a friend who I happened to sell my 911 twin turbo to decades ago. We go way back. We built street hemis with 8-71 blowers in a Valiant of all things. It was a 392 hemi from a boat. Oh, what a headache it was to make it all work. But we did. It's the only car I've ever driven that could light the tires up for 440 yards, and these were pretty wide tires, I forget the size. Bias ply. Anyhow Willy calls me because was changing the gear ratios in the 911 gearbox and he didn't check his torque wrench out a couple times before using it on a critical part. You can guess what happened. Snap. But it wasn't just the stud shearing off, the casing it was threaded into cracked widely as well. If I had to guess that part of the transaxle is going to set him back $4-5K easily, if he can actually buy the part. Worst case he's now shopping for a used transaxle that may not exist.

I feel for the guy. We did a lot of stupid back in the day and life was really good. He's normally a cautious guy so this whole episode even leaves me feeling crap. Morale of the story. Make sure you are 100% certain your tools are fit for purpose. (His torque wrench is a Snap-on, probably retails for $1000, he's going to talk to them on Monday, an expensive tool like that should not fail)