subframe bolts

[ed armstrong]

I think I will reverse myself on my position of
reusing suspension bolts and nuts. These stories are
giving me the jitters.....

 -ed



--- Phil Payne <quattro at isham-research.com> wrote:
> > NEVER, EVER, reuse ball joint bolts or nuts.
> ALWAYS replace with
> new
> > ones.  On two occasions where I reused them, a few
> months and a year
> or
> > so down the line the ball joints popped out
> because of overly
> > stretched/worn bolts.
>
> Weird.  My own priorities would also be the opposite
> - if something
> nasty happens to an engine because of a reused
> component, you just
> have an engine to fix.  If something nasty happens
> to the running gear
> at speed you might wind up with a whole car to fix
> and a damaged
> family.
>
> The cost is usually comparatively low.  In many
> cases (brake pads, CV
> joint kits) Audi ships new fasteners in the pack.
> Some alternatives
> are cheaper partly because they omit these.  As
> incredible as it
> seems, I once found a box of new, unused, caliper
> retaining bolts on a
> shelf at a relatively well known 'quattro
> specialist'.  They were out
> of brake pad kits - they'd put the new bolts
> supplied by Audi to one
> side and refitted the existing bolts as a standard
> practice.  Why?
>
> In my case, the left rear axle bolt on the Big Red
> Bus came loose, not
> long after I bought the car.  I pulled it tight and
> discussed the
> issue with Martyn Parker at BR Motorsport.  He
> pulled the bolt,
> measured it, pronounced it overstretched and wound
> in a new one.  No
> problems since.  One of the torque settings I check
> when I change the
> oil.
>
> Overall the major problem with reusing 'do not
> reuse' components is
> that you don't know if they've been reused already.
> Most of the cars
> I see have cloudy ownership history and nothing like
> a service audit
> trail.
>
> --
>   Phil Payne
>   http://www.isham-research.com/quattro
>   +44 7785 302 803
>   +49 173 6242039
>
>


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