E200 Spare Wheel Bolts Stuck

[midonogh]

My father in law has a 2001 E200 auto fitted with alloys.
While fitting the spare wheel yesterday he used a wheel bolt from the alloys rather than the spare. The alloy wheel bolt is about an inch longer than those supplied with the spare. He put the car in reverse and found that he could not move more than about a foot.

I suspect that the longer bolt is catching on something around the hub. It now is not finding any purchase but can not be removed with vice grips. The car is marooned on my driveway.

It was dark and cold last night so we did not get an opportunity to fully investigate. But is sounds like such a simple error that I thought that some others may have had similar experience and might be able to advise

Thanks
midonogh

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

If you do a search on E Class spare wheel bolts you will find one or two threads on the issue. To cut a long story short, if you fit the steel spare without using the, special, shorter wheel bolts supplied with the spare wheel you will damage your rear hub irrepairably I'm sorry to say.

You will now need to take advice from an independant or Merc dealer to make sure that no further damage is done by moving the car.

I know its of no consolation to you in your present predicament but I replaced the steel spare with an alloy to stop this happening. If, as I suspect, you will require a new rear hub I would try to get the dealer to accept some responsiblity and meet you some way with the cost.

In conclusion, a silly design that should have never been sanctioned by the manufacturer and should be fail safe.

 

[carabind]

Don't think the dealer would do much as it's more a manufacturing design fault. But good luck

 

[midonogh]

Guys
Thanks for the advice. At least I know what I am up against.
It really is not the sort of issue that you would expect with MB.
Anyone know what parts I will need to put this right - I have a relation that works for MB parts so that will soften the cost ever so slightly

 

[television]

The damage thats incured is all to do with the parking brake, it really depends on where the bolts made contact within the brake drum, once you have the wheel off its easy to remove the drum where any damage can be seen, the most damage as i can see will be to the back plate that hold all of the parking brake shoe adjusters, this is only a thin stamped plate.

with luck it may not be too bad.

Malcolm