You will *not* believe what happened to me this morning...
Well, last night I picked up a screw in my passenger side front tire. This morning, I got ready for work, and went outside to put on the spare tire. I got out all the tools and started removing the bolt that holds the spare in place in the trunk. For some reason, it was *really* hard to spin off, but I just kept going. I stopped for a bit and took a break to go loosen the lugs on the wheel with the screw in it, and then get the jack in place. Then I went back to the spare. I kept wrenching on it and then finally *squeak*...the pressure was gone. I looked down to find out that I had completely ripped the welded nut-sert apart. This meant that the bolt was stuck in place and I can't remove my spare tire. At all. I even tried literally ripping it out of the car. So I stood there for a while thinking of what I should do, and then I just decided to tighten the bolts on the wheel and just drive the car to the nearest tire store.
Unreal. I'm just glad that this didn't happen on some road trip, because I would have been stuck in the middle of nowhere with no way to access the spare tire. How ridiculous. I'm sure it was because some monkey in the past put the spare in place and tightened the bolt down with an impact wrench...it was on there so tight. It's not designed to handle that kind of pressure.
Any ideas on fixing this issue? At the moment, I have no way of tightening down my spare, or getting it out of my car. Right now I'm thinking of just cutting off the bolt and removing the spare completely...thoughts?
Eric
Well, last night I picked up a screw in my passenger side front tire. This morning, I got ready for work, and went outside to put on the spare tire. I got out all the tools and started removing the bolt that holds the spare in place in the trunk. For some reason, it was *really* hard to spin off, but I just kept going. I stopped for a bit and took a break to go loosen the lugs on the wheel with the screw in it, and then get the jack in place. Then I went back to the spare. I kept wrenching on it and then finally *squeak*...the pressure was gone. I looked down to find out that I had completely ripped the welded nut-sert apart. This meant that the bolt was stuck in place and I can't remove my spare tire. At all. I even tried literally ripping it out of the car. So I stood there for a while thinking of what I should do, and then I just decided to tighten the bolts on the wheel and just drive the car to the nearest tire store.
Unreal. I'm just glad that this didn't happen on some road trip, because I would have been stuck in the middle of nowhere with no way to access the spare tire. How ridiculous. I'm sure it was because some monkey in the past put the spare in place and tightened the bolt down with an impact wrench...it was on there so tight. It's not designed to handle that kind of pressure.
Any ideas on fixing this issue? At the moment, I have no way of tightening down my spare, or getting it out of my car. Right now I'm thinking of just cutting off the bolt and removing the spare completely...thoughts?
Eric