Does the Number of Torque Wrench Clicks Matter?

Which person are you - double click on the torque wrench or single click? And more importantly does your choice change the torque value? I have all these lug bolts tightened with a ratchet, on the front lug nuts I’ll double click and in the rear ones I’ll only single click. And now we’ll test the breakaway torque of all the lug bolts. And basically, it’s even. That was the result I was expecting, here’s why. Basically, your torque wrench is measuring the friction of the bolt threads against the threads of the socket. As you’re tightening the lug bolts, you’re overcoming something called sliding friction. Once you reach the specified torque, you stop tightening, and when you click the wrench again, the bolt shouldn’t move. This is because the force needed to overcome the static friction of the bolt at rest is much greater than the sliding friction of the bolt while in motion. It’s the same kind of idea as pushing something - it takes a lot of effort to start it rolling, but once it’s rolling, it’s not as difficult to push it. And the same is applied to the bolt. It takes less torque to keep it tightening, but to start it tightening again takes more torque, so the bolt doesn’t move on the second click.

[@drive.science]

So to clarify: there is no inherent negative to an extra click, except that human error (like here) comes into play if there are many extra clicks

[@drive.science]

@@UnknownSavedOnevery good point

[@Glasseh]

It's honestly more important that you don't over torque them before hitting them with a torque wrench. If your torque wrench does not rotate the bolt/nut as you're applying torque, then they were over torqued from the get-go.