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The shop down the street keeps using impact wrenches on aluminum oil pans
I saw them strip the threads on a Ford 2.7L last week, and the customer had to get a whole new pan. I've always hand-torqued those to 18 foot-pounds with a dab of sealant. Are impact guns on soft metals just a bad habit that needs to stop?
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alice_barnes356mo ago
Oh man, that's brutal. So they're just zipping them on with the gun set to full send? I gotta ask, what's their excuse when they mess it up? Do they even try to fix the threads with a helicoil, or do they just go straight to telling the customer they need a whole new pan?
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ben_shah935mo ago
You ever see a tech admit they cross-threaded it, or just blame the part?
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charles_henderson6mo ago
Look, sometimes you gotta get the job done fast and a torque wrench just slows you down. Alice_barnes35 makes it sound like every bolt needs a gentle kiss, but in the real world, time is money. Most of the time the threads hold just fine if you know what you're doing. If it strips, a helicoil is a cheap fix anyway, no need to panic and replace the whole part.
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