Wheel Bolt Snapped

[djuk]

I have a 1999 E300 TD Elegance - I had a problem a short while ago when one of the wheel bolts holding my N/S front wheel on snapped when it was being removed. To cut a long story short the wheel had to be cut off and replaced, according to the garage (local not MB) this is a known problem and the new bolt they had to purchase had a shorter neck than the existing bolts to prevent this problem. My question is : Should I replace all the other bolts (would there be any chance of MB doing this FOC?) or should I just remove them once a year say, grease them up and put them back on?Thanks in advance for any advice.....RgdsDave J.

 

[wongl]

I have a 1999 E300 TD Elegance - I had a problem a short while ago when one of the wheel bolts holding my N/S front wheel on snapped when it was being removed. To cut a long story short the wheel had to be cut off and replaced, according to the garage (local not MB) this is a known problem and the new bolt they had to purchase had a shorter neck than the existing bolts to prevent this problem. My question is : Should I replace all the other bolts (would there be any chance of MB doing this FOC?) or should I just remove them once a year say, grease them up and put them back on?Thanks in advance for any advice.....RgdsDave J.

I had a near incident while trying to remove my near side front wheel, luckily I managed to break the spanner and not the bolt! Eventually I managed to remove the wheel nuts by using a blow torch to heat up each nut so that the expansion breaks the rust bond.

Becareful when greasing the wheel bolt as you don't want them to work themselve loose over time. I found that using a tiny bit of copper grease (which I bought for applying to brake pads) a good way to prevent the bolts from rusting.