Stop over-tightening bolts!

Too many times I have heard of people tightening nuts so much they they snap the stud off the car.
This isn’t funny, it’s pure idiocy.
On every vehicle I have worked on, someone has been so scared of their oil filter magically falling off that they have tightened it so hard that only Thor himself came loosen it.
This made it difficult to remove every filter that I haven’t installed, but much so on my friend’s Peugeot where it meant damaging his radiator to get his filter off. They literally say “hand-tight” or 6nm on the box.

Today’s post was inspired by another bolt on my motorbike.

Previously I ranted about the head-bolt being too tight. This could cause head gasket failure, or unevenly stretch the head bolts and cost thousands in rebuild costs.
In the photo above I had to hammer a torx (star-shaped) piece into the bolt to remove it.

Today something equally as bad happened.

I had to use the same trick on a screw that holds on the rubber grommet that joins the head with the carburetors. Here you can see that I once again used my trusty torx bit to remove a bolt.

In fact, all the rubber grommets were on too tight - I had to use a breaker bar to remove all the bolts. Having looked through the workshop manual, the recommended torque is 10nm - that it about as tight as anyone can go using a screwdriver.

Since these grommets are rubber, they are likely to bend. This can cause issues with the engine as air and dust can bypass the air filter and that all-important air-fuel mixture can escape the engine.

Above you can see the hex bit that should have been used to remove the bolt, while next to the bolt is the poor old torx bit that only serves to fix other peoples’ mistakes.

Please, for the love of God, stop over-tightening your car, engine, or anything.
If you do find yourself over-tightening things, please go back and try to pass this test: