Which torque wrench for a Gen 2

A run of the mill click torque wrench from harbor freight will do you once you start tightening and what not most of these bolts you won't need it once you figure out what a certain amount of torque feels like you notice bolts are given a range of torque things like that I have it torque wrench is probably not been out of the box and I don't know 15 years maybe 10 or 12 I might have used it to sock down some head bolts but that's it usually I use them on head bolts flywheel things like that most of the rest of the generic stuff no torque wrench at all spark plugs no torque wrench wheel studs and nuts no torque wrench

 

Nope never had nothing fall off or snapper to come destroyed from improper torque or holding so far imagine now that I'm getting old one of these days I'm going to have a wheel go rolling off a car that happened to me and my dad when I was like 7 years old Fiat 124 spider We were going left in the tire went right rolling down the road

 

I've ended up with three, a 1/4" drive (has range suitable for stuff like throttle body hold-down nuts/bolts, studs), a 3/8" drive (has range suitable for spark plugs, fill/drain bolts, oil filters, brake caliper bracket bolts), and a 1/2" drive (has range suitable for wheel lug nuts, suspension bolts/nuts).

Prime reason for having 3: they're more accurate near the middle of their range than at the extremes; you don't want to tightening throttle body hold-down nuts/bolts with the 1/2" drive torque wrench.

Also, you want to be on your toes when reading torque values: in the extremely low values (aforementioned throttle body hold-down nuts/bolts for example), auto manufacturers tend to switch to inch/pounds (instead of foot/pounds). To convert inch/pounds to foot/pounds you need to divide the value by 12. More than one poster has snapped the head of a small locator bolt, torquing it to a value 12 times too much. Too, these minor locator bolts are an instance where you really just need to use common sense, torquing to spec is overkill.

All of my torque wrenches were relatively cheap, $30~40 USD, made-in-China, micrometer style. Tekton seems a good name in Chinese-made. The 1/2" drive I got decades back, the 3/8" in the last decade, and the 1/4" quite recently. I've tested them recently and all were surprisingly accurate.

 

1/4" drive: 20 to 240 inch/pounds
3/8" drive: 5 to 80 foot/pounds
1/2" drive: 10 to 150 foot/pounds
(with the 1/2" drive, something like 30 to 200 would be preferable, in hindsight)

 

There are a few small bolts that require a very low torque value. That includes the ones on the modules in the HV battery. For those use a 1/4" torque wrench, usually with a range like 0 to 80 in-lbs. Be aware that the ones that look like this

https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/c/performance-tool/performance-tool-1-4-inch-drive-torque-wrench/pfm0/m195?q=torque+wrench&pos=3

and are found at all the car parts chains are really junky. The beam tends to stay bent after a measurement. The "fix" is to bend it back so that the pointer is once again on zero. Better low torque tools tend to be pricey.

 

Tool tip: after use always back the torque down to lowest setting before putting the torque wrench away.