I'm planning on doing some work on my em2's suspension in the next couple weeks; specifically I'm changing my struts, ball joints, LCA bushings and tie rod ends. I don't have a torque wrench and considering how much I just spent on parts I don't really want to buy one..

If I get the bolts all extremely tight will that do?

 

on most suspension parts you have too loose, correct torque and stripped in that order. as long as you land over too loose and before stripped you're fine.

 

your fine, honestly most shops blast everything together with impact guns, don't put all your muscle into everything, but get it tight :D

 

Awesome, thanks guys.

Good to know I can hold off on the torque wrench purchase for now. Now I just need to pray I don't snap any bolts.

 

Thats a oxymoron....

 

tightening any non internal engine bolt is a common sense thing.

 

By a torque wrench! Every nut and bolt is designed to stretch a given distance as it is torqued. Once you exceed this design criteria the nuts and bolts will begin to stretch beyond there limits. They can break immediately if they are waaay over-torqued...they can fail in service if they have been over torqued. Also, if these are not tightened enough there will not be enough friction between the two thread surfaces to hold them together. Ever nut and bolt is designed for a given application, is of a given size and hence has agiven torque setting.

Using anti-siez or other libricants will allow these components to be over-torqued. This can be a huge problem in some areas of todays' cars; some of the suspension components are held to gether using self tapping bolts. The unibody material is usually much softer than the bolt and will strip if they are over torqued...and...if components are 'drawn up into place' while threading the bolt.

Over-torquing wheel lugs nuts will lead to warped rotors so follow the specs on those carefully.

A thread is essentially a spiral wedge or incline plane.

 

Ball joints are something that need to be torqued to spec always...same with axle nuts.

 

Varying opinions eh.
I might just buy a POS torque wrench to use this time and save to buy a better one for next time.

meb58, I was planning on putting anti-seize on the bolts, to make lowering spring install easier later on, so thanks for that info.

 

not too much, ball joints are really easy to strip / cross thread if you just gun them with an impact and axle nuts were one of the few things that always had to be done with a torque wrench back when i was in a shop. a lot of standard impacts can't get that nut tight enough with a quick blast. a good gun like the ingersol ti could but still that's one place a torque wrench isn't a bad idea to be using

 

you are wlcome and Good luck.

 

Or you could rent a torque wrench from autozone.

 

I'm from Canada, no Autozones up here.

I picked up a nice snap on torque wrench off craigslist for $100, problem solved.

 

i hope its new, because if its out of calibration your ****ing yourself hard

 

No, its not new. I bought it from a retiring mechanic who just had it calibrated though.

 

Hmmm question... how many ft lbs do you guys torque your wheels down to? I usually tighten my wheels to 91lbs.

 

80.

 

i haven;t seen one far enough off to matter on wheels. oil pans and engine components, that's another story.

the most i've ever heard of with a quality wrench is around 10lbs unless it's visibly fashed

 

80 from above sounds about right but most wheel torque specs come in a range...any that I've checked on. 80 - 90 ft lbs. I use 85.

However, I am repsonding because it is most important that each bolt is torqued equally and in the proper order; many, many years ago when I began playing with cars I performed a brake upgrade and aimlessly torqued the wheel nuts. True to my younger self I went out and drove at some rediculous speed and hammered the brakes - after bedding in. They warped. I called the manufacturer and I was told to re-torque the wheel nuts correctly, obtain the same speed and hammer the brakes again. I did and they strightened out. I was cautioned that this might not work...but if it did it was only because I performed my brake test only once and did not put a lot of miles on them.

I have since discussed this with a couple of brake designer/ engineers and they confirmed this event to be pretty much a, "duh" moment. If you think of the rotors hat as a piece of fabric that will distort when heated you are on the correct path. The odd pressure points created by over torquing cause the molecular structure of the rotors to re-alighn when heated.

Just trying to help, sorry for the long reply.

 

I bought both a ft-lb wrench and an in-lb wrench years ago. I use them all the time any time I work on the car. Having the helms with the torque specs of everything is great. I don't have issues with anything coming loose.

It is 80#'s for the lug nuts and I think 134#'s for the axle nut. I just replaced my throw out bearing a few weekends ago.

A quick check of testing the torque wrench:
1. Get a bench vise.
2. Get a 50# weight.
3. Set your torque wrench for 50ft-lbs.
4. Place the weight on the wrench about 10 inches out and slowly move it toward the measured 1 ft mark. If it clicks on 1 ft you are good. Easy, quick, and pretty good.

 

Engine bolts and wheel studs, yeah, torque them to spec. Suspension bolts (other than ball joints) really aren't all that crucial IMO as long as they are tight, just don't over do it. I'm on the fence about axle nuts. Yeah it should be really tight, over 100ft-lbs tight, but I question how much difference the exact value past that really makes with the nut punched in the axle. Not like it's going to loosen with it like that.