DIY Mechanics Fail Stories
Discussion
richhead said:
for all those struggling with disk retaining screws, just use a big hammer to smack the disk off nr the to the screw, it will take the screw head off with the disk, then the rest of the screw can be wound out by hand, or just left, the screw serves no real use anyway, and i never refit them.
The only time they are useful is if you have wheel bolts not studs.
I don't normally have an issue with these. Bit of PlusGas or XCP One and a properly fitting decent quality bit in an impact driver normally does the trick, unless someone has already mullered the head, but even then it generally works.The only time they are useful is if you have wheel bolts not studs.
But as above - A BFH tends to solve most part removal challenges.
thepritch said:
Thanks all. Tried drilling out remaining part of screw in the hub for an hour this morning. Gone as large as I dare, and screw now has 7.5mm hole (9.8 dia thread) but even with all the bashing with a hole punch it’s stuck (welded) solid. Had to leave it and finish the assembly job due to an appt this pm.
Have to say, 25miles in and the ebc discs and pads are already stopping waaaaay ahead of what I was used to!
Next up, find coolant leak, do rear brakes, and rear sway arm bushes, change rear wiper motor, and replace fog lamp
I had one seize up solid last change and ended up running a tap through the hole to chase out the last bits of it. It worked but by gum that thing was in there solid.Have to say, 25miles in and the ebc discs and pads are already stopping waaaaay ahead of what I was used to!
Next up, find coolant leak, do rear brakes, and rear sway arm bushes, change rear wiper motor, and replace fog lamp
I'm still amazed at the cheapskate car companies that put a piddly little cross bit / Pozidriv / JIS / Philips etc screw in there for the sake of what must be about 2p over something more appropriate.
I took the entirety of the rear suspension off mine the other week, the disc retaining screws were torx and just undid with zero hassle... unlike when I did the brakes on a Mazda 6 which had a crappy cross bit / Pozidriv / JIS / Philips and even with an impact driver and correct size bits they just failed to shift, mullered the head and I had to drill both out.
I took the entirety of the rear suspension off mine the other week, the disc retaining screws were torx and just undid with zero hassle... unlike when I did the brakes on a Mazda 6 which had a crappy cross bit / Pozidriv / JIS / Philips and even with an impact driver and correct size bits they just failed to shift, mullered the head and I had to drill both out.
One from work, a few years ago I was servicing an old relic, a 30 odd year old Iveco which has been due for replacement for years but can never decide what to replace it with so it soldiers on!
Went to the store man and got him to order a filter kit drained the oil, took the filter off and in the meantime store man has appeared with the filters, surprisingly quickly. New filters on and oil refilled.
Started it and was immediately met with a growing puddle of oil under the engine, trouble was I couldn't turn the engine off as it had an air operated stop solenoid, and no air in the system so my only solution was to force myself between the body and cab to desperately reach for the injection pump to manually pull the rack.
Turns out the reason it was quick to get the filters was that he found them in the back of the store the week before, without knowing they were probably 10 years old. Top o ring was hard as plastic, in a rush I hadn't checked and just greased it up and fitted it!
Went to the store man and got him to order a filter kit drained the oil, took the filter off and in the meantime store man has appeared with the filters, surprisingly quickly. New filters on and oil refilled.
Started it and was immediately met with a growing puddle of oil under the engine, trouble was I couldn't turn the engine off as it had an air operated stop solenoid, and no air in the system so my only solution was to force myself between the body and cab to desperately reach for the injection pump to manually pull the rack.
Turns out the reason it was quick to get the filters was that he found them in the back of the store the week before, without knowing they were probably 10 years old. Top o ring was hard as plastic, in a rush I hadn't checked and just greased it up and fitted it!
Arnold Cunningham said:
Last time I changed the oil on my LR, put a new filter on & fired it up. 5 litres of oil on the driveway - the oil o-ring had stuck to the filter housing rather than the filter and with double o-ringe, it was peeing out inbetween them. DOH.
HummWe almost did that with a large vessel full of CO2 that we use at work
Seal had stuck to the man access plug, new seal put in primary closure and when plug reinserted, it sat proud.
Some clever person then noted it was sat proud by the thickness of the seal and a hunt for the old seal began. Finally had to admit where it must be and some red faces when the plug was lifted out.
Simple to do but shows the value of back out checks
IroningMan said:
I dodged the disc set screw challenge the other day by the simple expedient of buying an old-fashioned impact driver.
From Wera.
For £85.
Plus another £20 for a decent hammer. So in four years’ time, when they need doing again, I’ll be sorted. If I can find it, of course.
Dammit, I had no idea Wera made one until now. That would have given me a good excuse to buy a Koloss too.From Wera.
For £85.
Plus another £20 for a decent hammer. So in four years’ time, when they need doing again, I’ll be sorted. If I can find it, of course.
I finally had to drill one out last year so bought a £20 hammer through impact. Having the correct tool means I will never actually need it.
richhead said:
for all those struggling with disk retaining screws, just use a big hammer to smack the disk off nr the to the screw, it will take the screw head off with the disk, then the rest of the screw can be wound out by hand, or just left, the screw serves no real use anyway, and i never refit them.
The only time they are useful is if you have wheel bolts not studs.
If you check your run-out it does.The only time they are useful is if you have wheel bolts not studs.
"If" being the key word here
This was certainly a fail.
Change rear disks and pads - done many many times over the years on many different cars.
All done except - oh, what's that drip. Balls, it's brake fluid. A seal on one of the calipers gave up when I wound it back in.
So then go to change the caliper - the handbrake cable has seized into the caliper. OK, I'll do the cable too,
So disks & pads became disks, pads, caliper, handbrake cable, which of course also necessitated removing heat shields to put the new cable in and mucho grumpiness.
Change rear disks and pads - done many many times over the years on many different cars.
All done except - oh, what's that drip. Balls, it's brake fluid. A seal on one of the calipers gave up when I wound it back in.
So then go to change the caliper - the handbrake cable has seized into the caliper. OK, I'll do the cable too,
So disks & pads became disks, pads, caliper, handbrake cable, which of course also necessitated removing heat shields to put the new cable in and mucho grumpiness.
RECr said:
After drilling off the head of a siezed disc screw on one of my previous cars I didn't bother replacing it for years. Just had to line up the disc/wheel bolt holes when removing the wheels.
These are very useful in that situation.But do note there are two common thread sizes for car wheel bolts.
https://www.bing.com/aclk?ld=e8zdhOepW_rv6XhZZuFI-...
donkmeister said:
richhead said:
for all those struggling with disk retaining screws, just use a big hammer to smack the disk off nr the to the screw, it will take the screw head off with the disk, then the rest of the screw can be wound out by hand, or just left, the screw serves no real use anyway, and i never refit them.
The only time they are useful is if you have wheel bolts not studs.
If you check your run-out it does.The only time they are useful is if you have wheel bolts not studs.
"If" being the key word here
njw1 said:
9xxNick said:
donkmeister said:
If you check your run-out it does.
"If" being the key word here
Exactly."If" being the key word here
Having said that, it is easy enough to just use a couple of large nuts to slip over the wheel bolts to make the job work.
Krikkit said:
donkmeister said:
richhead said:
for all those struggling with disk retaining screws, just use a big hammer to smack the disk off nr the to the screw, it will take the screw head off with the disk, then the rest of the screw can be wound out by hand, or just left, the screw serves no real use anyway, and i never refit them.
The only time they are useful is if you have wheel bolts not studs.
If you check your run-out it does.The only time they are useful is if you have wheel bolts not studs.
"If" being the key word here
njw1 said:
Wouldn't you normally clamp the disc to the hub with the wheel nuts/bolts when checking run out anyway?
Yes, but often using three rather than five nuts plus the washers I have for the purpose. If that shows any problems I will recheck with all five. However, if the car hasn't shown up any problems before and I'm fitting decent disks, I have occasionally just checked the runout with the locating screws holding the disk. Was changing the rear CV joint on a BMW X5, had to dismantle the rear hub assembly.
(rubbish pic, not even of the right car but you get the gist).
Was resting my hand on the red part of the lower arm while hammering out the (stuck) blue bolt.
The car has air suspension so the spring (and tension) wasn't immediately obvious... but as soon as the bolt was free the spring pushed the yellow arm straight down past the red one and I felt the glove go between.
For a split second I thought I was stuck but luckily pulled my hand free... unfortunately a bit of my little finger wasn't so lucky and had stayed in the glove.
Not even any pain, but lots of shock. And then lots of pain during the recovery.
Couple of months later, it's started to heal and I can use it but I'll probably always have a skinny little finger as a result.
I'm very lucky it wasn't so much worse, but on the flip side I've probably had near misses like this and thought nothing of it in the past.
I'm pretty careful around springs but I just wasn't thinking. Be careful!
How it looked then (warning, gore, blood etc):
How it looks now:
(rubbish pic, not even of the right car but you get the gist).
Was resting my hand on the red part of the lower arm while hammering out the (stuck) blue bolt.
The car has air suspension so the spring (and tension) wasn't immediately obvious... but as soon as the bolt was free the spring pushed the yellow arm straight down past the red one and I felt the glove go between.
For a split second I thought I was stuck but luckily pulled my hand free... unfortunately a bit of my little finger wasn't so lucky and had stayed in the glove.
Not even any pain, but lots of shock. And then lots of pain during the recovery.
Couple of months later, it's started to heal and I can use it but I'll probably always have a skinny little finger as a result.
I'm very lucky it wasn't so much worse, but on the flip side I've probably had near misses like this and thought nothing of it in the past.
I'm pretty careful around springs but I just wasn't thinking. Be careful!
How it looked then (warning, gore, blood etc):
How it looks now:
Edited by Jakg on Tuesday 11th November 20:25
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