How many of you do your own maintenance?
Question
How many of you do your own maintenance? I intended to do my own oil changes and chain service, even bought a torque wrench to do it properly. Now I find out the torque wrench is only guaranteed about 95% accurate. FFS! You have to calibrate those too! I don’t know if it’s worth the hassle.
Answers ( 15 )
I do mine….get a workshop manual and take your time….piece of cake. Buy a better torque wrench !!!
I just looked it’s accurate to within 4%. IDK if that’s good or bad.
Good enough to be honest…if a thread is greased then reduce the torque or you will overtorque it. I forget the percentage to reduce it by but if you think about it if it’s lubed it requires less torque force to make it tight. Torque figures are for dry threads.
Thanks Matt!
No, threads should be lubed to achieve proper torque. Dry threads give false readings of bolt stretch.
All threads should be lubricated at that point an only that point you know you are tightening against metal not dirt or rust. Not reducing the Torque because it is lubed
Even the best torque wrenches have to be calibrated now and then.
Tbh for that kind of work i doubt your torque wrench will be an issue, id say its more important getting bolts equally tightened than 100% torqued up, tbh i dont have a torque wrench that goes low enough or is accurate enough for any of the jobs id need it for on the bike and ive done alot of maintenance on it since ive owned it
Important shit like head bolts and internal engine parts and axles are good to have torqued correctly
There are like, three types of bolts on an entire car that I will use a torque wrench for. I assure you, an oil drain plug is not one of them.
10mm socket a 1/4 drive ratchet with an extension a set of good 1/2 inch drive sockets metric needle nose pliers and a metric set of Allens I’ve built a few bikes from frame up n never not once needed a torque lol…
I know I used to work on vehicles lots in the 1980s, never used one, but I wasn’t sure about these new beasts!
Just give it a few clicks I generally click it just passed the torque just to be sure it’s on good, oil change very simple too. Like anything once you’ve done it so many times it becomes second nature.
Yep, I do all my maintenance on my bike and cars. Garages like you to think these jobs are more difficult than they actually are. Using a torque wrench is better than not using one and guessing?
I do my own repairs as well. Between YouTube and google, the basics are well within reach
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