lug bolt just spinning - help please.

Ryan,

Hi Derek,
Not started on the attempts for today. Do you do house calls? :)

Have some help on the way from Jack and we'll attack it. If we can't get it I'll figure out how to get to you or figure out what it would take for you to come my way to drill the bloody thing out so we can at least diagnose the damage. If it is hub work I can have it towed your way if your shop can do the work.

Thanks to Ryan I got the delux tour of the back road route from Issaquah to Renton.  Nice peacfull drive and no stops to pickup stray pieces of MINI!  I'm sure the guys at SLE will get to the bottom of the problem and the end of the lug bolt.  Saw an old friend in the lot at SLE  -  she was looking good but I didn't have a chance give Stella a closer look...   Mentioned Pat's name and they didn't throw us out so i guess they think he's OK...  We worked in a lunch stop at XXX on the way back.  Got to play in some traffic on the 405 return trip - but it wasn't as bad as I thought the rain would make it.  Good day over all - just hope the damage is minimal and it just takes a new lug bolt to make everything good a new.

Good luck. I'd like to hear how they are able to get it out. 

Not yet. SLE was pretty busy so giving them time.

Verdict: Cross Threaded and a damaged hub.

I'll post pictures when I get Alsatia back.

Ouch, I would definitely have a stern talk with the mechanic that did that.

I bet he's re-thinking the whole "rotating between winter and summer tires" thing.  

Edited by Marc - October/23/12 at 6:08pm

Ryan, sorry to hear about Alsatia but it sounds like you'll be back on the road in no time.  I thought this sounded familiar and after seeing your photos I went out to the garage and found one of mine.  This same thing happened to me at a race.  I would rotate the wheels after each session (to get the most mileage out of the tires).  I would have to wait about a half an hour before doing this though because of the heat generated after a track session.  When the one started to spin instead of breaking loose, I thought my weekend was done.  I got lucky by waiting a few more minutes before trying again and it caught and broke loose and was removed, although the lugnut (bolt) was toast.  Fortunately, there was a BMW crew (in the early days of PRO 3) who brought lots of spare parts and I was able to buy another one to save my day.  Mine doesn't look nearly as bad as yours and I was lucky not to have stripped out the hub.  Check it out -

Larry has always switched out summer and winter tires on my MINIs since they are my daily drive all year round.

Wow!  Just saw this.  Sorry!  If you're ever in a pinch shoot me a PM, I'm local to you and have lots'o'tools to help as needed (heat gun, impact wrench, drills, bits, jacks, etc.). 

Hey Jack..that's an excellent point about threading in a bolt, screw (especially in wood) reverse until you hear or feel it drop in to the original thread.   A lot of people don't know about this.  I've gotten in the habit of doing that with every screw/bolt.

johnf36 wrote: You know everyone that because of the way the hubs are made and the way the  bolts engage the hub it is easy for road junk to end up in the threads. When this happens and you go to remove you pull that junk into the threads. This looks more like thread galling then cross threading. Dave looks like the same problem but you are spot on as the heat contributing to the problem.

Larry says that he concurs.

I should add this can also happen if the bolt is over torqued and stretched.

Second Derek's comment/suggestion.

I will also hit the bolt threads with a brass brush.

Great to hear that it ended well. Nice SAVE on Derek's (SLE) part.   Kudos to Jack for his in-person rescue efforts (glad he got to ride some backroads on his Birthday!)