What could stop a rear wheel bolt going in properly on C216

[Craiglxviii]

£6409 at the last count , and I think 41 weeks of time spent in garages in total.

 

[LostKiwi]

£6409 at the last count , and I think 41 weeks of time spent in garages in total.

OUCH!!!

 

[Craiglxviii]

OUCH!!!

That's what hindsight is worth!!

 

[television]

OUCH!!!

Stop thinking

 

[Submariner1]

Well worth being prudent, just got the MB quote £1,119.18 to replace the hub if its not repairable.

And £78 to assess if a threadcleaner would work and pass MB's safety standards !

Defo worth those words in my book!

 

[Trev1964]

Christ!!

 

[AMGeed]

Sub.......you seem to stumble from one crisis to the next. Do you ever get to drive and enjoy the car?

In my 8+ years on the forum I have never read such a concentrated number of threads/posts of woe and making mountains out of molehills!

 

[yorkshire1]

Id be wanting a car for that price!!

 

[L John]

A tech puts the bolt in a socket and screws it in a few threads by hand before using any leverage or guns.
A monkey puts the bolt in the socket whilst its on the windy gun and drives it in.
Looks like a monkey put the wheels on.

Submariner, I feel your pain. Ignore the ones saying it's trivial.
You paid good money for a proper job and that is not what you got.
I've no experience of tapping threads but my guess is you would go in from the rear so the tap is guided by the good threads at the rear. Others with experience will hopefully confirm or say what is the correct way.

Good luck with getting it sorted, I thought this forum was exactly for stuff like this, no matter how many words it takes?

 

[Craiglxviii]

Yes, absolutely go from the rear. Remember half a turn clockwise then a quarter anticlock to break the swarf.

You will only need a second or third (plug or parallel) tap for the job and not a full set.

In terms of the bolt, it's almost certainly cheaper to replace it than buying a die to clean up the one you have... I'm assuming you don't have tap wrench or die stock either.

 

[LostKiwi]

You can go in from the front with a taper tap. The taper will guide it and it will find the original threads.

 

[Submariner1]

Ex

Christ!!

Exactly, thats why I am being cautious, until a professional assesses that hub.
I dont want to end up paying for some company's careless workers mistakes.

 

[Submariner1]

Yes, absolutely go from the rear. Remember half a turn clockwise then a quarter anticlock to break the swarf.

You will only need a second or third (plug or parallel) tap for the job and not a full set.

In terms of the bolt, it's almost certainly cheaper to replace it than buying a die to clean up the one you have... I'm assuming you don't have tap wrench or die stock either.

Thanks Craig I have a tap set but only up to M12.
Sadly one cant go in from the rear as you would have to seperate the angled bearing, which apparently always breaks when you pull it out. Hence an £806 hub is needed. So it would have to be done from the front. Ironically the first few threads seem so so, its only deeper in where they are wrecked ( due to the angle of the bolt )

In any event I will leave the decision of to repair or replace to the main dealer.

And yes will definitely go new bolt, besides the tip of the first 5 threads is completely sheared off.

 

[Submariner1]

A tech puts the bolt in a socket and screws it in a few threads by hand before using any leverage or guns.
A monkey puts the bolt in the socket whilst its on the windy gun and drives it in.
Looks like a monkey put the wheels on.

Submariner, I feel your pain. Ignore the ones saying it's trivial.
You paid good money for a proper job and that is not what you got.
I've no experience of tapping threads but my guess is you would go in from the rear so the tap is guided by the good threads at the rear. Others with experience will hopefully confirm or say what is the correct way.

Good luck with getting it sorted, I thought this forum was exactly for stuff like this, no matter how many words it takes?

Thanks for the support.
What is worse, is he basically wound them in with. 750mm extension bar! So he knew he had unusual resistance. And the this was on the second wheel, where the first technician gave up on the first wheel because of the same problem paint filling the hole.
So he was alerted to the problem .... hmmm Gross negligence ... hmmm I think that Lorry mechanic went to jail didnt he over poorly maintained brakes.

I am sure they will domthe right thing by me and will play nice!

I have no intention of bottling it, if it is adjudicated by MB that the hub needs replacing.
If they say its fine to tap it .. thats cool by me.

As for all the words ... if I want to pick someones brains I want them to have all the facts, its also handy as provable timelined notes

 

[Submariner1]

Sub.......you seem to stumble from one crisis to the next. Do you ever get to drive and enjoy the car?

In my 8+ years on the forum I have never read such a concentrated number of threads/posts of woe and making mountains out of molehills!

Yes course I do. Love that car

Its just a big learning curve of now being involved with mechanical decisions; after 30 years of just handing over the keys to a main dealer service department on new cars under warranty.
So divide the number of threads by 30 and spread them over a year, and that would represent someone who learnt as they went along.

Plus my goal of getting her up to spec is virtually finished. Sort this .. wheel issue, which was not of my choosing.
Then maybe change the front brake pads ?? Then she is sorted for 2 years apart from an annual oil change.

I found it a big step having a second hand car, because you have to consider all the possibilities of how something went wrong. Whereas on a car from new, you know exactly what has or has not been done to the car.

 

[Submariner1]

Id be wanting a car for that price!!

Welcome to th S Class line.
Sadly or stupidly there is ironically a seperate hub plate (that has the threaded hole which the bolts go into) and it only costs £81. But this is pressed into an angular wheel bearing, that is unfortuneately part of the whole hub @ £807.
According to 2 main dealers, when you pull this out the bearing is sacrificial, and nearly always breaks up, and even if it doesnt, it never goes back or fails very quickly due to being distorted - so they have to use the whole part. Shame that.
Being me I voiced my views that that was really silly.
But as he rightly pointed out, the part shouldnt suffer wear and therefore wasn't designed to accomodate technicians that were so incompetent, that they cant put a wheel on without cross threading it. Fair point!

 

[Submariner1]

Until it fails an MOT because a wheel bolt is missing (section 4.2 of the MOT manual)

Or it comes off, and kills someone, and the traffic incident cops delve into it ... which they would. And you they discover you knew it had a problem. And suddenly your insurance company withdraw your insurance and you end up slapped with a manslaughter charge.

All highly unlikely, but I am sure that's what that lorry mechanic, who skimped on the brakes and killed that beautiful little gir thinks every day he wakes up in Wakefield prison.

 

[Submariner1]

Just returned from Mercedes investigation of the hub threads .. cost £78. Well spent they actually spent twice as long as the estimate .. but stuck to it.

The hub flange plate is knackered!. And needs replacing, in their opinion its unsafe.
Sadly too much damage to the hub threads, to the point that tapping it back straight, would mean I would had lost too much material.

New hub flange and the damaged bolt.


The good news is now that MB have examined it, they can confirm no damage to the hub carrier, so I only need the hub flange plate, and the conical bearing and some one time fit bolts, so including Labour of £356 the totsl cost is £550.56. Plus of course the £78 inspection plus a new wheel bolt £7.30.
Grand Total £638.86!

So imo worth all those sarcastic words.

Unless you are total cretin, and dont mind paying for it yourself - or you are happy to degrade your car with a bodge up repair .... and possibly later discover, when you get your next puncture, that it then wont torque up properly :-/

I guess as long as you are not a feeble whimp, its worth speaking up.

Discovered an interesting reason MB wheels bubble around the wheel bolts. Namely the conical recess on the face of the wheel should be an unpainpainted machine finish. (for correct torque and compression friction, if you dont have the correct friction you are then purely relying on the wheel bolts)

In summary, because you always get a joint between painted and unpainted wheel, right by the bolting face of the wheel bolt. Hence the weakness for water to get in and travel under the paint or lacquer.
No way around that.

 

[LostKiwi]

Namely the conical recess on the face of the wheel should be an unpainpainted machine finish. (for correct torque and compression friction, if you dont have the correct friction you are then purely relying on the wheel bolts)

Did I not tell you that?

 

[Submariner1]

Did I not tell you that?

Absolutely his explanation was pretty much verbatum per yours, for the back face. This also explains how so many have bubbling arou d the hub cap.