Thought I would try and see what the general consensus is on this, as I am a novice mechanic and I have no idea what the right answer is. A few of my more mechanically inclined friends have told me that torquing isn’t all that important for most things and that torque really is only important for certain parts. Is this true? Because when I look in my service manuals for my vehicles it seems like they have recommended torque for most bolts… is this more of a recommendation? Is it okay to just make most bolts “tight’nuff” and call it a day? Interested to see what people’s thoughts are on this.
Officially, everything has a proper toque spec. But for an experienced mechanic, there are some things that “good enough” or “by feel” is fine. There are other things that should be properly torqued.
Generally the things that are ok to be “close” on are non critical things, like an interior trim cover, or maybe the antenna mount, or the plastic engine cover. But for things like suspension components, wheels (probably the most common thing you’ll see people torque to spec), cylinder heads, valve/cam/rocker covers, water pumps, and other engine components, those should all be torqued to spec.
On most of the stuff that “backyard” mechanics work on, you can generally develop a feel for what is close, but you run the risk of not having the proper tightness and causing damage. Either from being too tight and stretching/breaking the fastener, stripping the threads, rounding the head or being too loose and having things leak, rattle, or fall off.
If you don’t know, it’s better to take the extra moments to look up the spec and properly tighten it.