Why does everyone keep overtightening their oil drain bolts?

I was helping a buddy swap oil on his CBR600 last weekend and his drain bolt was torqued so hard I thought it was welded. Took a breaker bar and a lot of swearing to get it off. Then I see posts online all the time about stripped oil pans and helicoils. It's 18-20 ft-lbs most of the time, not a lug nut on a semi truck. Has anyone else run into this where previous owners just gorilla grip everything?

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2 Comments

blairm353mo ago

@jason_kelly8 at least you learned from it, most people just keep mangling their pans and blaming the threads. A torque wrench is cheap insurance compared to drilling and tapping your oil pan.

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jason_kelly83mo ago

Yeah, I’ve been that gorilla before, stripped my own oil pan and learned the hard way with a torque wrench.

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