Important! : snapped wheel nut

5th February 2010, 12:52

was cleaning my wheels with wonder wheels this morning and as went to take the front drivers side wheel off (well just undoing the nuts) CRACK!

the nut has snapped inside the hub!

is it possible to drill this out ????

also is it dangerous driving round with just the three wheel nuts ?

5th February 2010, 12:56

undo the three nuts, take the wheel off and see if you've got any thread you can unscrew with molegrips?

5th February 2010, 12:58

yeah good idea dont really want to try and undo the other 3 though lol incase they snap cos then im fucked!

lol any ideas on a way which i can do it gently ? tips

5th February 2010, 13:05

Just undo them - make sure you're turning them the right way to undo.

You'll have to have the wheel off at some point in the future, may as well do it now and sort the problem so that the car is safe to drive

5th February 2010, 13:12

Your fine to run on 3 bolts but at least get the dodgy bolt out until you can find a replacement.

5th February 2010, 13:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by L_E_W_I_S

Your fine to run on 3 bolts but at least get the dodgy bolt out until you can find a replacement.

I wouldn't run 3 bolts personally, let alone advise someone to

5th February 2010, 13:25

just took the wheel off and there is no way i can get hold of any thread ..... glum.

looked round the back of the wheel hub and where the other holes are free i can see that the thread comes through to the other side anything i can do with this
?

5th February 2010, 13:37

if its possible to get at the wheel nut from the back just get into it with some grips and turn it out, making sure its coming out at the back, should be ok.

as for using 3 studs.... my saxo only has 3 stud wheels, but that said the weight is evenly distributed, you could end up breaking the rest of the nuts due to strain etc. so dont drive on 3 nuts

5th February 2010, 13:41

yeh, try and un-screw it with some mole grips ?

5th February 2010, 13:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by cnic

if its possible to get at the wheel nut from the back just get into it with some grips and turn it out, making sure its coming out at the back, should be ok.

as for using 3 studs.... my saxo only has 3 stud wheels, but that said the weight is evenly distributed, you could end up breaking the rest of the nuts due to strain etc. so dont drive on 3 nuts

Yeh the 3 studs have the wheels bolts positioned to equally take the load - whereas using a 4 stud with 3 bolts is slightly different

5th February 2010, 13:44

i was running 2 bolts for a week with my last car, was fine for a while

5th February 2010, 13:45

ive heard a couple people been fine driving with 3 nuts briefly. i wouldnt be in a hurry to do it though. take a trip to b&q, get and extractor set, drill a hole half way down the bolt and extract it out

5th February 2010, 13:48

would you get more room by taking the disc off? just curious

5th February 2010, 13:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by LSOfreak

ive heard a couple people been fine driving with 3 nuts briefly. i wouldnt be in a hurry to do it though. take a trip to b&q, get and extractor set, drill a hole half way down the bolt and extract it out

thats what you wanna be doing mate!

5th February 2010, 14:02

am going to give the extractor set a blast

how does it actually work ?

5th February 2010, 14:11

it uses a left handed thread so that when your tightening the extracter nut, it bites the sheared bolt and cause your tunring the 'wrong' way in theory for a normal right handed thread it loosens the knackered bit.

6th February 2010, 01:09

as you drill it in, the bolt just undoes itself lol hard to explain

6th February 2010, 01:29

Hi charliekitchenham,

As Raunchz said, i wouldn't recommend driving around with only three nuts, for a start your car would be classed as 'unroad-worthy' as you can fail an MOT if you do not have the correct amount of nuts in each wheel. I'm not sure what the legal implications would be but i would imagine a small fine, possibly points (depending on coppers mood).

What you need (as said above) is an extractor kit. If you pop into your local halfords/motorshop and explain to them the situation they'll be able to find you the kit you need. Its around £6.00/7.00.

The kit will contain a few different sized small bars that have a reverse thread on. You drill a small hole (just a little smaller than the bit that you're going to use) in the centre of the snapped nut. You then screw the extractor-bit into the hole.. as you would screw a screw into a piece of wood. Once the extractor bit gets so far it will start turning the snapped-nut the opposite direction due to the extractor-bit having opposite direction thread on.

I'm not sure how well i've explained that so i've gone one step further to help you and got you some pictures

Here's a link to the type of kit you need:
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/s...egoryId_165572

If you need any more help just drop me a pm mate.

6th February 2010, 02:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by raunchz

I wouldn't run 3 bolts personally, let alone advise someone to

mine only has 3 studs to start off with.

its fine, but deffo not a long term fix.

6th February 2010, 10:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul

Hi charliekitchenham,

As Raunchz said, i wouldn't recommend driving around with only three nuts, for a start your car would be classed as 'unroad-worthy' as you can fail an MOT if you do not have the correct amount of nuts in each wheel. I'm not sure what the legal implications would be but i would imagine a small fine, possibly points (depending on coppers mood).

What you need (as said above) is an extractor kit. If you pop into your local halfords/motorshop and explain to them the situation they'll be able to find you the kit you need. Its around £6.00/7.00.

The kit will contain a few different sized small bars that have a reverse thread on. You drill a small hole (just a little smaller than the bit that you're going to use) in the centre of the snapped nut. You then screw the extractor-bit into the hole.. as you would screw a screw into a piece of wood. Once the extractor bit gets so far it will start turning the snapped-nut the opposite direction due to the extractor-bit having opposite direction thread on.

I'm not sure how well i've explained that so i've gone one step further to help you and got you some pictures

Here's a link to the type of kit you need:
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/s...egoryId_165572

If you need any more help just drop me a pm mate.

cheers mate is appreciated looks like what i need. goning to give it a go today and see if i have any joy.
will post up later !

6th February 2010, 12:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rosstafarian

mine only has 3 studs to start off with.

its fine, but deffo not a long term fix.

but your is supposed to have 3. yours are spread out evenly like a triangle, where as 4 stud saxos are spread out like a rectangle so wouldnt evenly spread the load

6th February 2010, 15:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rosstafarian

mine only has 3 studs to start off with.

6th February 2010, 22:29

cheers guys. sorted it !! !

7th February 2010, 00:02

Well done mate

8th February 2010, 16:03

haha thats nothing i snapped one in my 106 (3 stud model) and drovge round with 2 studs in the front wheel for 4 months

. no biggy and yes can be drilled out. reccommend garaging it tho as they had mine out in 1.4 of a hour. bastards still charged me £20 tho -.-