Fixing advice from our garage proprietor Steve Rothwell IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
VAUXHALL COMBO
Very often some of the problems I come across could have been avoided with a little patience and a little more care, but often the constraints of time and attempting to rush can have an adverse effect. This owner discovered that fact when they were rushing to change the wheel after a puncture on a wet night. In retrospect they may have been better to just slow down and get wet, but in their rush to get the spare wheel in place, they cross-threaded one of the wheel bolts on this 2008 Vauxhall Combo diesel van.
Rather than have another attempt at getting the bolt into place correctly, he simply used as much force as he could muster to get the wheel bolt to go fully into place. Thankfully this was the only bolt that was incorrectly fitted and so the rest of the wheel bolts were securing correctly holding the wheel in position.
The owner apparently managed to forget about the problem, so when bringing the wheel in to have the puncture repaired, asked me to fit it back in place. It was only after I discovered the cross-threaded bolt that he then admitted to the error.
Even though the bolt sheared off on removal, the situation was recoverable using a drill and then cleaning the thread with a tap. Ordering up a new bolt, things were back in good order and the next time the wheel needed to be replaced, hopefully the job could be done without issue.
SUBARU IMPREZA WRX
The owner of this 2006 Subaru Impreza 2.0 WRX was complaining of a poor feel to the steering, and with a quick shake of the steering wheel I could certainly feel the problem he was complaining of. The play in the steering could be felt along with a clonk as the steering moved from side to side. Checking the play at the wheels, I at first thought it was just the track rod ends which were at fault.
Thankfully I didn’t jump to conclusions. On finding the wear in the track rod ends, I continued to check out the rest of the steering – this was a good move as further checks revealed that the inner track rod joints were also worn.
The difference to the steering after the joints were replaced and the tracking re-set was quite dramatic, and the owner was impressed with the improvement of the steering. I would image the tyres will also wear at a less dramatic rate now.
BMW X5
How can a hose rust you may well ask, and that is exactly what the owner of this 2006 BMW X5 3.0 diesel asked me. The X5 had just failed the MOT on this point and when I looked the rust was quite extensive. The corrosion was of course not on the rubber flexible hose, but on the fer
