You Need a Torque Wrench in Your Toolbox

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If you’re like me, you’re probably snapped a few bolts throughout your DIY career. Tightening fasteners feels like second nature right up to the point where a tightened nut or bolt becomes worryingly loose. That’s why these days, I keep a torque wrench by my side whenever I tackle a job.

Torque wrenches are specialized ratchets that can be adjusted to apply a specified amount of torque to a nut or bolt. Professionals and DIYers alike use them to torque fasteners in an accurate fashion so as to apply a specific tightness to keep critical parts of a car from falling apart, failing, or being damaged. You’ll see them used most often by engine builders, as the tolerances and margin for error when building an internal combustion engine are extremely tight. If every bolt isn’t torqued perfectly, the engine can fail to generate compression or worse, damage itself on first startup.