Oops! - and how safe?

[pandamonium]

I was driving home from work today and hit traffic. I noticed as I was doing less than 5mph that there was a CDUNK CDUNK coming from the passenger side. I though at worst I had a loose wheeltrim.

When I got home, I had a look. The wheeltrims were all fine, so I decided to remove the one which I thought it was.

I was greeted with a wheelbolt falling out!

 

Questions....

 

How do I fix it? How do I prevent it happening again? I am presuming it has happened before, as I found another stripped bolt in the boot with the spare wheel. :

 

How safe is it to drive without the bolt in? Bearing in mind it is a 5-stud wheel.

[Milford Cubicle]

I drove all over Ireland with 3 studs holding o/s/f wheel of my 405 on.

Is the thread in the hub jiggered? You could try putting a new or better bolt in there, otherwise it's new hub time.

[pandamonium]

Thread seems fine, but I have a set of taps and a bridgeport milling machine at work.

If that fails, there's a W123 in the scrapyard I can raid.

[j-j]

Crikey - at least the threads stripped on the bolt and not in the hub - easily tapped like you mention.

 

Well, in engineering terms there is said to be 'one more bolt than necessary' due to the 'safety factor' used in failure calculations. (I dunno where that leaves 3 stud 106s and AXs not to mention 2CVs and my old GSA!! though I never saw one fail on those cars - studs are much further apart than on normal cars)

 

You should be OK but I'd be cautious about ragging it on any twisty B roads until the bolt is replaced!

[Minimad5]

bridgeport milling machine

Fantastic piece of kit !

What series is it ?

Does it have the board ?

 

..... sorry i know that is no help

[pandamonium]

I'll take a pic just for you

[GJR 11L]

That frequently happens when people overtighten the (aluminium or hard plastic) wheel nuts on Sprint alloys, but I'd have hoped that Benz would have steel bolts.

 

Write to the factory, tell them how close to death their sloppy QC standards brought you, see them send a full, car set of fresh bolts to you immediately!