Who uses a torque wrench for spark plugs?

Torque wrench on spark plugs, never have.

For the ones that are stubborn to remove, makes a skwaak noise, feels like you’re ripping the threads out, a couple tricks. Do it with the engine completely cool. Blow the spark plug area with an air blow gun to get any dirt out that likes to collect down in there. Crack it loose, maybe 1/2 to 1 turn out. Prepare your plug socket, extension and a T handle. Squirt some wd40 on the threads, tighten in, loosen out, repeat in and out, it’ll begin to feel like the wd40 is working down the threads. From there, sometimes it’ll spin out easy with the t handle. Sometimes it’ll feel free until you begin to loosen it out. Sometimes it just wants to skwaak all the way. Depending on how bad it is, you may need to repeat spraying it, then do a kinda back and forth tighten it in. In 1/3, out 1/4, repeat until it’s bottomed. Then the same bringing it out, out 1/3 in 1/4, repeat. Sometimes you’ll find a sweet spot where it feels free. Squirt again, work it in and out. Sometimes it’s really stubborn and the t handle doesn’t provide enough leverage to move it and you have to use a ratchet. If you do destroy the plug hole threads, it’s not the end of the world. There’s thread repair kits, KD makes a nice kit, just follow the instructions. If you’re not comfortable doing it, find someone who is.

Anti seize is my friend. I’m a bit anal and like to scrub every fastener with wd40 then put it in with anti seize, unless lock tight is required, on my vehicles that is. When on the clock, everyone just wants it fast and cheap, not good.

 

Every day, 15ft/lbs for the 5/8's and 13ft/lbs 14mm plugs.

I do it so I remember, I do so many plugs professionally that I need the audible click to remember that I did the row.

I've over tightened a few plugs, and most have been on tacoma 1GR in a hurry, the 15ft lbs just feels right and matches the washer crush that you need.

That said I've never torqued a coil pack lol.

 

In my 51 years working on engines I have never used a torque wrench for spark plugs or drain plugs. I also have never stripped out a spark plug or drain plug, lucky or not I think I have the hang of it by now.

How the saying goes: I'd rather be lucky than good.

Oh Crap!

I just jinxed myself. Next time I do plugs I'll strip one for sure damn it.

 

professionals develop hand feel
it is easier for an amateur who does not have professional experience, to have a tool do that for them

do you have a TQFR100C easily stored at torque
or a cheap alternative that requires twisting a knob, doing a dance, jumping a backflip, and playing half an hour of chess each use to waste time setting it

torque wrenches are for critical components like headbolts, a rare repair that is easy to set it up
hold on I have to get a torque wrench to open this doorknob
100 bolts on the car, let me spend 5 years operating them with a torque wrench
let me listen to an automotive manufacturing engineer's made up torque spec instead of my own hand feel, from the same guy who designed a truck with problems and bolts elsewhere that loosen on their own due to his design parameters

heard a story about some dumb guy once let's call him Bob "My experienced buddy Bob doesn't like Glocks because to remove the slide you have to pull the trigger and he shot his hand"

 

Never did on cast heads. The torque is so low on these I use it to not over torque them

 

I've never owned a vehicle I needed to change plugs in...

I took a Jeep Cherokee to 196K after buying it with 40K, and pretty sure the plugs were original equipment. I pretty much go by the old saying, :If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

I've run a lot of cars a lot of miles, and sold all of them running fine on the plugs I bought them with.

Most of the people I know that are religious about maintenance seem to have more problems with their vehicles than I do. I just don't seem to break vehicles. (knock on wood)

In fact it's kind of gotten to be an interesting experiment, to see how little maintenance I can get away with. I've got a lawn mower I bought in '06 and have only changed oil in it twice. I just can't kill the damn thing.

 

on some vehicles plugs take 20min to change
both the car company and spark plug company say to change it at a certain mileage
it is a few dollars

 

I’ve noticed Toyota puts a torque value for everything in the service manuals. it must confuse some into thinking I gotta get the torque wench for everything.

Yeah lucky, most of the time my 6th sense will say DUCK. Most of the time, then I bonked my forehead hard enough to end up with two black eyes.

I’ve never shot myself in the hand with my glock.

 

I just make the sound with my mouth (click!) then I know it’s torqued

 

probably because every automaker already has that information making it not difficult
factories doing mass production have different kinds of tools that have torque values already preset into the machine for tightening certain bolts and it can be calculated by things like thread dimensions
to remove the human factor from the equation and make it repeatable/the same all across the board for every car made
they can't have a new guy at the factory undertighten everything causing 300 bolts to fall loose on a vehicle when it hits the road

easy to pull the $5k tool hanging from the ceiling the car company provided to press a button and tighten a bolt, potentially even logging record into the system that it has been tightened
on an engine sitting on the ground

Not easy to work on that same engine 10k miles later when it's shoved under a cab body on a frame, with no room to put a torque wrench
Like why did they put the UCA bolt facing forward and not backwards
probably installed with the cab off

 

Sure... and any time or dollars spent unnecessarily is money down the toilet.

I once had a car with 15K on it, and the power steering pump began to leak. It was repaired under warranty. The shop recommended the serpentine belt be changed, "Because it had cracks", and I refused. I sold the car years later with just under a 100K on it and the belt still had cracks.

 

I do not

 

I do the same. I've got a wire wheel on a bench grinder in my work bench. Just about all the bolts get the wire, then anti-seize. Everything but spark plugs.

Something to add to the spark plug thread repair, I've always caked the tool with thick grease. That way the grease holds the chips, and they don't fall in your cylinder.

 

serp belts are usually due up to 100k
seen one snap, either the belt or idler pulley
driver lost hydraulic steering on the highway and got towed

 

What happened when it was over torqued?
Crack the plug?

 

Nope. Go. till you feel the crush washer stop then just a hair more. Never had a problem

 

Only virgins use torque wrenches.

 

I use mine for internal engine work or hub nuts.



but everything else gets the German spec!

 

Agreed. I reserve the use of torque wrenches on critical engine internal components alone. The rest gets German Torque Spec: Guttentite

With saying that, the only reason I talk so much mess about them is because Toyota has made it some sort of religious practice to assign everything a torque spec. Torque wrenches do have their place in the automotive industry, but Toyota (and GMs) overusage of them makes me hate them. Realistically speaking though. I think the acknowledgement is there during the development and production of these FSMs that backyard mechanics and brand new scrub "techs" working in their dealer wide networks will be wrenching on these trucks, so I think it is more of a "cover our ass, minimize warranty repairs due to the idiocy factor" more than anything.

 

Sometimes