Depends on what you want to spend, I think the pick of the bunch generally are the milwaukee series battery ones, but they come in at a staggering few hundred quid, but from reviews seem to undo pretty much everything.

I have a machine mart battery one which is ok for most things I’ve thrown at it so far and Kielder get some good reviews to.

or you can get the 240v machine mart one which should easily whip off a hub nut.

 

Thankyou.I'm budgeting £200. I was looking at air tools on the Machine Mart website, they have this compact 1/2" Air Impact Wrench which is claimed to do 600NM, and a tiny air compressor, which means I could use the other air tools I have in a box. Plus this compact wrench might be good for drive shaft bolts under the alfetta. There are a few snapon air impact wrenches on e-bay at the moment, which would be my first choice, but buying used tools is a bit of a gamble.

 

I've got a 18v Ryobi with a 5.5 amp battery which is pretty good, its the batteries and chargers that cost a lot when they get up to that sort of ampage but yes the best ones are 300 quid plus, i've also got the Clarke corded one which is good as a basic gun. I find the Ryobi one really useful as a screwdriver as well, you can get some big screws home without drilling holes, including coach bolts but it is noisy

 

Hazel, you are right, used tools like air tools are a big gamble. If you buy electric, go for one of the better makes and compare the torque output. Makita or Milwaukee would be good. If you take the air option again go for a quality product, not cheap and nasty. Cheap air tools use more air and are less power as a result. One of the best impact guns I ever came across was by Ingersoll Rand, I think this is the current version. Mine is so old now all the marking have worn off it. I used it as a repair loaner when I was a Snap on dealer, so it got hammered, but 25 year on it still works fine.

Ingersoll Rand 1/2 Air Impact Wrench with 1250 BPM and Friction Ring (2135QXPA)

Buy Ingersoll Rand 2135QXPA 1/2 air impact wrench with friction ring for an everyday low price and fast shipping! JB Tools

gb-jbtools.glopalstore.com

 

This is interesting, as I was looking at the snap-on MG725, it is very pretty. choices, choices. Thanks everyone for all your input, I think I am in a much better situation to make a decision now.

 

If you do a lot of work on the car yourself the 1/2" High Torque Milwaukee M18 cordless gun is an awesome piece of kit but ends up being around £300 with a charger and battery if bought separately. Easily removes hub nuts, crank pulley bolts etc. I've also got the M18 3/8" cordless gun, cordless grinder and a drill so share the charger with a couple of batteries.
Milwaukee M18FHIWF12-0 18v 1/2 Impact Wrench Cordless Body Only Fuel Wrench 4892210156082 | eBay

 

If you do a lot of work on the car yourself the 1/2" High Torque Milwaukee M18 cordless gun is an awesome piece of kit but ends up being around £300 with a charger and battery if bought separately. Easily removes hub nuts, crank pulley bolts etc. I've also got the M18 3/8" cordless gun, cordless grinder and a drill so share the charger with a couple of batteries.
Milwaukee M18FHIWF12-0 18v 1/2 Impact Wrench Cordless Body Only Fuel Wrench 4892210156082 | eBay

Wow "Mode 4 1898Nm", have you ever used mode 4 ? . I only really work on my Alfas in the summertime as a hobby/self-punishment and excercise regime, so I try to get the MOTs to renew then. Thanks for the reccomendation.

 

in the old days in UK I used to just go to my local tool hire and rent such an expensive tool (especially one that I was maybe going to use once!)
are those shops all gone these days?

 

Very sensible, but we are still sort-of locked down in the UK, not clever enough here to do loads of testing like in Germany

 

Where did you find that? When I sold these the one feature was the low consumption, in fact I can vouch for that with mine still. 23cfm is ridiculous. We sold them over the Snap On ones which did need a lot of air.

 

It was on the IR website "2135QXPA Series EUEN.WEB Flyer.pdf" Probably the marketing guys said turn up the pressure so we can quote the biggest Torque figure. I'm guessing it only consumes that for a fraction of a second until whatever poor nut or bolt is being assaulted.

 

The IR main catalogue also quotes most of the 1/2" Impact guns at around 11lires/second max (23cfm). I think this is 'undo' mode. Most of the wrenches I've been looking at only quote the clockwise torque settings, and when you dig deeper they all seem to be capable of 1000NM instantanious 'undo' mode. If only xmas was close by I'd get the IR one on the list.

 

Thanks for everyones help, greatly appreciated. For better or worse I decided to go with air power, and new tools. Finally went for something from Machine Mart, with a slightly bigger compressor than I had orinally planned, so we shall if this turns out to be a disaster.

Clarke CAT179 1/2" Drive 610Nm Stubby Air Impact Wrench - Machine Mart

www.machinemart.co.uk

Airmaster Tiger 8/260 7cfm 24 Litre 2HP Air Compressor (230V) - Machine Mart

www.machinemart.co.uk

Don't forget I am on a tight budget!

 

Try and keep the hose as short as possible and at the maximum diameter possible, get a good quality hose, the cheap rubber ones deteriorate quite quickly and you'll find it looks like a snake that's swallowed a series of golf balls after a while, air tools are brilliant and brutal if you want them to be, air chisels and scabblers are very useful, the scabbler is particularly good for removing old underseal, you can usually get a combined scabbler/chisel tool to save money

 

Be careful removing underseal on old cars, some contain asbestos.

 

I must be dead!
I removed every inch of underseal on my 101 with a screwdriver, laying on my back, took me 2 weeks and filled a whole dustbin!......hate to tell you what I breathed in, but when I sneezed it wasn't pretty😂

 

Dom, dont joke, it can lay dormant for years.

 

My partner has done a few cases of mesothelioma, it can resurface over 20 years later.
So, after having agonized over which impact gun to get, I called machine mart today, to be told my order will take at least 7 more working days to fill. They could have mentioned that earlier. I suspect they are trying to sell stock they do not have, so I'm cancelling that order. It's not the first time they have let me down either. So now I'm left with either doing no car stuff at the weekend, or getting another impact wrench, and so I've gone for a DeWalt DCF899 LiIon 18V rechargeable, which happily takes the same batteries as my DeWalt drill, which I use almost every day, including using it to drill a 5" hole through our house for an extractor fan, and the chuck bearing is still really good - amazing. So I'll be putting my air tools back in the box for another day, and I'm £50 better off too. DeWalt claim 950Nm torque! I think that will be plenty to break my wrists. It looks pretty too.