Dealer stripped threads in Hub ?

[indigoer]

Hi, hoping someone can help me here, my wife bought a brand new Fiat Ducato 180 10PAL Schlafkabine-Webasto back in 2008, it has only ever been serviced at the our local dealer we bought the car from, took it in for a service and two new front tires last Thursday and got a call saying the front nearside hub has stripped a thread for the wheel bolt and it is a £305 repair to replace the nut! They said it was from corrosion and then told me the bolts appear to have stretched? Also stated that all the wheel bolts show this problem and that all the hubs will need a repair as the threads might strip and we can potentially have a wheel fall off whilst driving.

I have never ever heard of this problem with any car ever! I think that the wheel bolts have been over-torqued by the dealer. No one has ever had the wheels off except this very same dealer. I think they stripped the wheel bolt and hub thread and are trying to get me to pay for their mistake.
I found a hub studs on http://famaga.chfamaga and thinking of bringing my car back and trying to replace them by myself?

Is there anyone on here who has ever heard of this problem with the Fiat Ducato 180 10PAL Schlafkabine-Webasto? Our van has 41000 miles on it and has never had a problem before. Our car is in immaculate condition, no rust or corrosion, has not been abused and has had full service history from new with the very same dealer we bought it from. This is the third set of front tires fitted to the van, so it has not had the wheels removed an excessive amount of times.

[drsteve]

Any technician, especially at a tire store, should be using torque sticks to tighten lug nuts. Makes it virtually impossible to over torque.

[Dave_H_M]

This reminds me of my dilemma about rotating tires. My local stealer highly recommends tire rotation every 5K miles.

To me that is just to much abuse on the lug nuts and bolts. I cringe just thinking bout the "tech" doing the NASCAR boogie on the lug nuts.

If everything is going well I usually go 20K on a rotation. :h

I hope this doesn't turn into a BOHICA for you. (bend over here it comes again)

[fj12ryder]

"Unfortunately it is hard to tell or prove when the damage was done. It could have been done when the tires were previously replaced."

Maybe, but the OP says the dealer is the only one that's ever done any kind of maintenance on the vehicle. Seems pretty obvious to me, but trying to get the dealer to do the right thing could be an issue.

[ScottG]

Local Goodyear dealer did that to my neighbors car. When he had them check their
puter, they could see they were the only ones that ever worked on it and they covered it.

[mobeewan]

Unfortunately it is hard to tell or prove when the damage was done. It could have been done when the tires were previously replaced.

I had a 1991 Isuzu trooper. Per the manufacturer's specifications and the manual the lugnuts we're supposed to be tightened to 65 foot pounds.

The nuts had a taper on one enf where they bottom out against the rim. When over tightening the nuts the tapered end would get smashed deeper into the matching bevel of the holed in the tire rim causing them to be crimped tight against the threads of the studs. After several times of removing the nuts and putting them back on over the years the nuts eventually galled and seized tight on the studs.

I found out about it when I had to get my vehicle inspected. I had the vehicle about a year and was the third owner. The garage doing the inspection called me out to the work area to show me that the nuts were seized. They also informed me that they might wind up snapping the studs off causing the nuts and studs to need replacing. I had them go ahead and do the work and the nuts finally came off. They put anti-seize compound on the studs and nuts to help with the galling.

The mechanic told me that they had been over tightened when previous work has been performed and that for my vehicle they were only supposed to be torqued at 65 lbs.

[Chum_lee]

This is a common issue. Not corrosion damage, but, stripped/crossed/rolled/stretched threads due to careless installation technique. Do you have any photos of the damaged lug bolts/hub threads or wheels? Using a heli-coil for thread repair along with new lug bolts could be possible, but not without seeing the damage. Do the lug bolts on wheels that are NOT damaged have corrosion on them?

If the hubs are damaged due to severe cross threading, or, running with the lug bolts loose, it may be necessary to replace them rather than repair them.

Chum lee

[Roger10378]

So your saying that the Fiat has wheel bolts threading into the hub. This is not the easy fix that most cars use where a press in stud is easily replaced. I am not sure that I would trust having the threads repaired on such a critical part. If it were just thread damage it could be corrosion, but with the dealer pointing out that the bolts have been stretched I would lay the blame squarely on the mechanics at the dealer.

[wa8yxm]

305... should be closer to 3.05 or .305 to replace a hub bolt (Stud) on every ride I've had it's takes longer to type this reply than to do the job.. One tool and in US about a 1 dollar 2 at the most part.

[allbrandauto]

as a auto shop owner my first question would be how long was the last time the wheels were off before this happened.if more than 2 years yes corrosion can make this happen.its hard to say over tightening of lugs can also do this

[midnightsadie]

I reread your post ,yes they did it. and they should eat the bill to fix them all. the service guy says it all.

[jjrbus]

I know noting about a Fiat, but I have seen lots of people with ruined lug nuts and studs. Dealerships put the new guys on tires and they screw up, big time, not the new guys fault, improper supervision. Try going in with left hand threads and watch the new guy break a couple of them with an impact wrench. Mostly I do my own work but if I have to have the wheels done I stand there and watch and make sure they use a torque wrench, not jam them on with an impact gun.

I would be at the dealer with fire in my eyes if no one else has serviced it.

[midnightsadie]

I think your right, and I,d take it to a tire dealer to have fixed. on a reg car its not hard to do .don,t no about your car. wonder if your insure would cover this.?