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I was doing my first oil change (600 miles) on my new 2013 CRF250L. I drained the oil and replaced the oil filter. As I was reinstalling the oil filter cover (four bolts) with my trusty CDI (Snap-On) torque wrench I ran into a bit of an issue. I secured the bottom right bolt first, but it didn't seem like it was tightening up so I moved up to the left upper bolt, which tightened up to manufacturer spec of 12Nm. I then tightened up the upper right bolt same as the upper left. I moved down to the lower left bolt and that was acted like the first (lower right) and didn't seem to tighten up at all and then I hear the dreaded "SNAP". I backed out the bolt, which was still intact, but obviously twisted/stretched. I backed out the right lower bolt and that was also slightly distorted.

I just don't get it???

What did I do wrong. The bolts didn't break off so the snap I heard was the threads inside stripping???

I would suggest tighten in a star pattern little by little until all are snug.

I would not use torque wrench on most motor bolts seeing as how most of them go into soft aluminum that can strip out easily.

Without going into a lot of detail, I have learned over the years that there are some nuts and bolts that are very important to tighten to spec and some are just to be tighten to feel.

For example, I always torque to spec cylinder/head nuts and bolts but torque to feel oil drain and oil filter bolts.

Ive done this several times doing changes on my DR350 - using needle nose pliers to pull the stub of the bolt out... I keep extra bolts around now that Ive learned my lesson...