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?

3 comments

3 Comments

alice_barnes351mo 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?

ben_shah9328d ago

You ever see a tech admit they cross-threaded it, or just blame the part?

charles_henderson1mo 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.