Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

What seems like a great idea on paper, in reality turns into something less so. I used the ACDelco (it is not manufatured by ACDelco, by the way) extensively while replacing a lower control arm and brakes. The bulkiness of the housing often got in the way, requiring fiddling with extensions to make it fit. The unit turns off at one minute intervals, which is highly inconvenient and is not user changeable. This made setting up awkward setup positions even more awkward, as I had to race to torque the nut or the adapter would shut off. You could easily over-torque a nut, not realizing the adapter is off. It should automatically turn on when torqued. You must be careful not to damage the LCD screen-difficult in repair situations. The adapter has a peak mode where the maximum torque most recently applied stays static on the display or trace mode where the amount of torque changes based on the torque currently applied. When user set torque is near, the adapter beeps intermittently and then a steady beep is made when at torque. Keep in mind, however, that by the time the adapter moves from a pulsating beep to a solid beep, you are well often beyond the user set torque depending on how subtle a hand you have. That gets confusing and the torque indicator lights on the side are useless. Perhaps most important, you can easily over-torque the adapter when using it at its higher setting when relying on the beep for confirmation (ten percent beyond 147 ft. lbs.). This de-calibrates the adapter. You will know when this happened because “err” will show on the display each time you power on the unit. There is no easy way to re-calibrate the unit. I suspect you would have to send it back to the factory, probably costing almost as much as a new adapter (plus lost time-might take weeks). Since the adapter is made in Tawain, it is possible there might be no way to get it calibrated at all. Interestingly, I called ACDelco about that very thing and they had no idea what adapter I was talking about or who could calibrate it (I didn’t use the number in the instructions, because I didn’t have them handy) even though they sell the adapter on thier website. The adapter often needs to be pulled off the nut and turned because the display rotates away from view (I prefer a visual confirmation of torque because beeps are not as accurate). I would forget what lug nut I just tightened. It is much quicker to use a standard torque wrench. . Now, there is a better use for this torque adapter. You can use it to calibrate your regular torque wrenches. There are some Youtube videos on this. Calibration of one standard torque wrench costs anywhere from 60-80 dollars, so this would save money. Other then that use, it’s just too inconvenient.