If you are not doing anything that falls under “Special Operating Conditions” it would seem to me that re-torqueing the prop shaft bolts every 15k miles seems excessive. I’m not saying that I wont do it, but has anyone every found they needed to be re-torqued? If the bolts are stretching it would seem to me that they need to be replaced if they are loosing their torque.

We are not using gaskets where re-torqueing may be required. Here is an interesting presentation on re-torqueing

https://www.4cconference.com/wp-cont...g_Apr-2018.pdf

Since 1975 driving FJ40 ('75), 1st Gen ('84) 4R and now 5th Gen (2016) 4R: Did more hard core off roading in FJ40, less in 1st Gen, and now just "mild roading" in 5th Gen and have never found loose driveshaft bolts. Don't know if I'm just lucky or more careful than others, but that is my experience.

100K later after purchase at 50k, and all is fine. I have never even thought about it. I work in the driveline industry if that tells you anything. That maintenance spec is really kind of silly.

I performed a Google search "why retorque propeller shaft bolt". The first 30+ references are links to Toyota forums. No other manufacturer is mentioned on the first page of Google hits. I elected to read forum posts on 8 links to compare my experience with others.

Almost nobody retorques these bolts including many dealers. Those that check the torque debate two approaches (1) loosen and retighten, or (2) do not loosen and simply check for tightness. Most prefer the latter. Personally, I prefer the latter and I performed this check with simple hand tools at 100,000 miles. Nothing was loose.

Torque spec is 65 ft-lbs. There is a risk of rounding off the bolt if cheaper tools such as a lower quality crowsfoot is used.

The actual torque applied when using a crowfoot or box end extension on a torque wrench must be accounted. Furthermore, the extension must be parallel with the torque wrench. See Torque Wrench Adapter Extended Equations & Calculator | Engineers Edge

Also, if you’re trying to re-torque those bolts in a home garage you better be pretty strong. 65ft-lbs is a big force especially if crawling under on your back.


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It's just a precaution and easy enough to do. With that said I never check the ones on my Tacoma and I had 140K miles without issues.

If you think 65ft-lb is a lot of torque, don't ever try to change the wheels on a Porsche with center-locks: 443ft-lb.

Set torque wrench to “tight as hell” setting. Does it require a special tool?

Yeah there's a special socket adapter but it comes with the car.

It wouldn't hurt to check the torque once on a new vehicle. The factory can get things wrong on occasion, although Toyota is better than most others. After that I don't think it is necessary.

As an example, I once bought a new Jeep Cherokee and there was no oil in the transfer case; the pre-delivery checklist even said they checked the transfer case for oil. I don't trust any dealers anymore.

They used to work their way loose on some older Land Cruisers and minitrucks. I've had them come loose on a minitruck rear shaft. You can hear the vibration right away before they would actually fall out. I have no idea why that was an issue on some past models. I've never seen this happen on any of the newer stuff.

The re-torque maintenance item is in almost all Toyota manuals. Even in 2wd Corolla manuals... not sure how you'd do that on a car without a drive shaft.

See Is this the most insane torque wrench ever? - Xtreme Xperience

Hytorc... nothing else to say. Drive by them often here in New Jersey


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Meh, we use them in my field all the time. Doing bearing checks on one engine, the proper torque procedure was to max out the HiTorc then use a 1in breaker bar (they're about 6ft long, then we put a cheater pipe on it) to finish by going to a specific bolt stretch. Same engine, the head bolts were torqued to 1800lb-ft.

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I’ve never put a wrench on driveshaft bolts unless replacing u-joints. Never had a bolt loosen up either.