Lower suspension bolt sheared - garages near Hertford?

T

thecremeegg

Active member
 North Hampshire
So brought my car to a friends house (90 miles from home!) to swap my springs over, however the lower bolt on the strut at the front has sheared - not good!

Anyone got any recommendations for garages near Hertford/Welwyn at all?!
 
I assume you mean the bolt that secures the hub to the bottom of the strut?

They will drill out - takes a little time and some good drill bits - this problem and some good drill bits were discussed a few weeks back so a quick forum search should find it.

Depending how handy you are; and if you can get home and don't need the car for a day or two you might consider buying a hub of ebay or and fitting it or getting an indi to fit a second hand one. Can you reassemble the car enough to get it home if you consider that the bolt is locked tight and will not undo on the journey.

Depends how deep your pockets are. You might want to replace or drill out yourself or buy even buy new because any garage is going to charge £50 - £70 an hour to drill the bolt out - if they can be bothered to take the job.
 
thecremeegg said:
So brought my car to a friends house (90 miles from home!) to swap my springs over, however the lower bolt on the strut at the front has sheared - not good!

Anyone got any recommendations for garages near Hertford/Welwyn at all?!
Click to expand...

This was the thread I was thinking of:

https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=103072
 
Crazy Harry said:
I assume you mean the bolt that secures the hub to the bottom of the strut?

They will drill out - takes a little time and some good drill bits - this problem and some good drill bits were discussed a few weeks back so a quick forum search should find it.

Depending how handy you are; and if you can get home and don't need the car for a day or two you might consider buying a hub of ebay or and fitting it or getting an indi to fit a second hand one. Can you reassemble the car enough to get it home if you consider that the bolt is locked tight and will not undo on the journey.

Depends how deep your pockets are. You might want to replace or drill out yourself or buy even buy new because any garage is going to charge £50 - £70 an hour to drill the bolt out - if they can be bothered to take the job.
Click to expand...

I've reassembled the car however there is technically nothing holding the suspension in at the bottom. Not sure if I could nurse it back?

I was thinking about the new hub idea, might be the easier option to be honest. I see there's on on ebay
 
thecremeegg said:
Not sure if I could nurse it back?
Click to expand...

If it flips out of the knuckle you'll total your car. the wheel will collaps under the wheelwell, possibly ripping the suspension arms out of your chassis. Thats obviously not a safe situation.

Also there's a chance that the locating pin on the shock breaks, as now with steering that takes steering force (for example due to the caster angle). Normally the shock is clamped in the knuckle, so that pin takes zero force.

Oh and if you decide to go driving with it, disconnect the front swaybar.
 
GuidoK said:
thecremeegg said:
Not sure if I could nurse it back?
Click to expand...

If it flips out of the knuckle you'll total your car. the wheel will collaps under the wheelwell, possibly ripping the suspension arms out of your chassis. Thats obviously not a safe situation.

Also there's a chance that the locating pin on the shock breaks, as now with steering that takes steering force (for example due to the caster angle). Normally the shock is clamped in the knuckle, so that pin takes zero force.

Oh and if you decide to go driving with it, disconnect the front swaybar.
Click to expand...

Yea I might not do that then :P
 
Apart from having no insurance and publicly advertised knowledge of a dangerous fault dumping you with 100% liability for whatever happens, driving it is the answer :P
 
It's home now, drove fine!

Only kidding, it got recovered by the RAC - took them 9 hours to get me from Hertford to Petersfield....good thing I don't pay for it!
 
Its funny that Ed' China or Ant Antstead never seem to spend half a day rectifying a stuffed bolt, I guess the language wouldn't be appropriate before the watershed :oops:
 
Ewazix said:
Its funny that Ed' China or Ant Antstead never seem to spend half a day rectifying a stuffed bolt, I guess the language wouldn't be appropriate before the watershed :oops:
Click to expand...

They would not pi$$ about with a sheared / seized bolt they'd just replace the part as money is of no object.

I have used the left hand twist drill bits to good effect, and of course lots of cussing and swearing. I replaced all the adjustable bolts, cams and bushes in my S2000, that involved cutting all the suspension arms out with an alligator saw, That was fun and took quite a while.
 
If you don't urgently need the car don't bother trying to get it out. Same thing happened to me, I picked up a replacement hub second hand for £15. No chance it would have been removed for a figure even remotely near that!

The hub is the same as the E46 3 series, so there's a load of them around. Only thing that might be different is the dust shield, but you can either change that or ignore it, it doesn't get in the way of the disk anyway.
 
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