I'm not really a lover of doing work on a car as things always seem to go wrong but to save a few pounds I decided to fit new brake pads to my wife's Fiat Punto rather than pay the labour. I have fitted brake pads on other cars I have owned and the Fiat was really just the same.

All was OK until I started on the 2nd wheel, I was undoing the bolts on the wheel when one of them was pretty tight, I applied pressure and managed to get it turn about 180 degree's and then it would not budge, I then applied much more pressure and the damn thing broke off leaving the rest of the bolt in the hub :bang:

Of course I continued and changed the brake pads on that side fine but now I'm left with a wheel which is only being held on with 3 bolts therefore I have some questions to any of you who would be most helpful.


1. Is driving with only 3 bolts dangerous ?

2. Could I drill the rest of the bolt out and if yes is this difficult ?

3. Would changing the hub instead be an easy task ?

4. Is there a special extraction tool that could remove a broken bolt in such cases, maybe a screw that could screw into the remaining bolt part and allow for the broken bolt to be unscrewed ?

5. Has this happened to anyone else who could give advice ?



I would really appreciate any help guys as I feel very guilty with what happened to the wife's car.


Thanks
KCF

my clio only has 3 nuts holding the wheel on and 1 of them is a locking 1 should be ok providing u dont break another

i'm sure you can get tools that can screw in and remove them. What you would have to do is drill a pilot hole into the screw and the thread the inside of the hole.

i would imagine it would be ok on only 3 bolts but fiat has put 4 there for a reason, i'm not sure if its a torque issue. The older citreon AX's and 106's only have 3 studs.

Run it for the moment but make sure you sort it, its probably stressing the other 3.

James

JamesMK2 said:

i'm sure you can get tools that can screw in and remove them. What you would have to do is drill a pilot hole into the screw and the thread the inside of the hole.

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Thanks for your replies guys, I've been searching more since I posted and it seems a 'left hand drill bit' is the first choice to try, if no good then an extraction tool as you said James would be the next best bet, there is one I found called 'Easy-Out' but unsure if it's sold in the UK, will have a look some more.

Thanks once again for your replies.


KCF

KCF said:

to save a few pounds I decided to fit new brake pads to my wife's Fiat Punto rather than pay the labour. All was OK until I started on the 2nd wheel, I was undoing the bolts on the wheel when one of them was pretty tight, I applied pressure and managed to get it turn about 180 degree's and then it would not budge, I then applied much more pressure and the damn thing broke off leaving the rest of the bolt in the hub :bang:

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When it went tight you should of took it to dealer,anyway I'd go for new hub & be done with it.Good extraction tools (snap on/mac tools) are very (VERY) expensive & not worth buying for a one off job.
Swallow your pride & get dealer to renew hub.......saying it was your mate that broke it of course
Now I may be wrong here,but,I think it's a MOT failure to have missing/broken wheel nut thus illegal? Maybe a MOT tester could verify this because a old car of mine definately failed on missing wheel nut......along with a list of other things

it isnt a mot failure my clio saild right through its mot and the bloke is well away of only 3 nuts on 1 wheel

cant really say for sure.some mot stations are less strict than others.on my old cinq i got through the mot with a few things i knew it would fail on.

Wont be a problem, the garage i work at is fairly stringent with MOT's, even more so with the new regulations that've been brought in and I wouldnt worry about it, as we have never failed a car solely for having three bolts on, my friends cinquecento passed recentely with three on the front also.

Like I said not 100% sure but it was definately on my fail sheet for my old honda (the bolt was missing)......however if it had a wheel trim on it.....would never had be noticed?

Thanks for all your replies regarding the MOT failure, lucky for my wife it has just passed it's MOT, they said would need brake pads replacing hence why I replaced the pads and broke the bolt trying to get it off........ sods law really.

If anyone knows of a garage in south London that has a left handed drill bit or extraction tool please let me know as I think this maybe the best step first, replacing the hub is my last choice due to cost.

Wished I could turn back the clock as well as the broken bolt but whats happened has happened now :bang:

how did mot place know it needed new pads? they are not allowed to take wheels off, so unless you have alloys with big gaps they cant see the pads, if they removed wheels they might have done it up too tight so owe you a free removal
was there not enough of broken bolt left to get mole grips onto it?

Failed brake test?

Are they allowed to remove anything,what if they suspect a serious defect?

T14086 said:

Failed brake test?

Are they allowed to remove anything,what if they suspect a serious defect?

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it has an mot thought so it cant have failed brake test

My wife took her car to get MOT'ed so can on assume they noticed the slight grinding whilst testing the brakes that had started only a few days before the MOT, the old pads were worn right down but not enough to damage the disc (thankgod).

In regards to the broken bolt...... nothing to grip onto as broke almost flat.

Oh....I see,you go to the same MOT tester as me

try using eazyouts

richiejohn said:

try using eazyouts

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No need now

Got it out this morning after using a blowtorch to heat the surrounding cherry red then it came undone, the damn thing had been cross threaded by previous owners

It would not budge the other day though where I tried everything but a blowtorch.

get a new hub, you just fried all the greese in yours

^^^^^^^^^^^What he said^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

dave said:

get a new hub, you just fried all the greese in yours

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GREAT! :bang:

There's me thinking the grease in a hub can withstand very high temperature's