Stainless nuts and bolts

[sparkypete]

I am thinking of replacing all the nuts and bolts including those on the suspension to the front of the car to stainless steel. Can anybody advise if the idea is good or is it not advisable to fit stainless to suspension areas due to stresses.

Many thanks

Pete.

[MickS2]

I'm no expert but I believe this is a definite No No. Stainless steel is more brittle than tensile steel and not for use on suspension bits or, some would argue, even seat mounts.

[bil]

i agree, stainless for looking good, high tensile for holding stuff together, thus if it needs a torque wrench to tighten it correctly, suspension included, high tensile is the correct stuff to use.
B

[spludge]

Yesp, I agree. Suspension, brakes, drive train, seatbelts, ie anything with a UNF thread needs to be high tensile.

[dougc]

Ooooh shiny





HTH

[ketvrin]

perhaps zinc plated will be sparkly enough ?

https://delta.securesslhost.net/~shenglt/catalog/p...

K

[Barkychoc]

Somebody told me on here that there are some strange size bolts - in terms on length of thread etc. and they have to be individually machined.
Steve Heath does a full set of suspension bolts for £50, which I reckon is good value.

Chris

[thegamekeeper]

There is stainless steel and stainless steel. It is possible to get high tensile stainless. The main reason it is ill advised to use it in suspension is because it can crack if exposed to salt and thus can fail. It is very unlikely to happen but can. I use stainless on the suspension of my cars and have done for many years without a problem but nowadays seldom take the cars out when there is salt on the roads. I use the highest grade high tensile steel (expensive) and further protect with liberal quantities of copper grease, which you should always use assembling any suspension but especially stainless. Without copper grease the nuts and bolts can get very hot when assembling and seize.

To cover my a**e I would advise against using it sTeVeR

Edited by thegamekeeper on Tuesday 9th October 18:13

[sparkypete]

Thanks for the advise, The only reason for the question is that the front of the car is all stripped down and I was thinking that rather than put steel bolts back, maybe stainless would be a good idea, even though i thought that it was a no no. You lot have just confirmed it for me

Thanks again.

Pete

[Olav Bergman]

Hi there,
I lost a bolt (tensil str. 12.7) on my front brake caliper in august. Only doing 10 mls/hr. (assembled with coppergrease and insufficiently torqued) The caliper hit the rim locking the wheel etc etc. I don't even want to think about what could have happened doing uh 60 ..
Since then I keep checking things.... Untill I have it all secured with wire or something there is worrying in the back of my mind. This is a different story but..

How would your peace of mind do, using S/S on suspension parts? wouldn't there always be something...bothering??
Those parts are hardly visible too. I wouldn't do it.
(And hey I'm at least as big a Stainless fan as you are, I'm sure)

Cheers

Olav "stainless" Bergman

Edited by Olav Bergman on Tuesday 9th October 22:28