its a worry ??

[dray13dad]

Has anybody come across this?

okay car is in bits need new bolts etc for suspension etc,so afternoon off work off
i go to local supplier in portsmouth.want 3/8 by 2.5 inch in length.should not be a prob!
what do you want them for sir kit car suspension say i,you need 10.9 strength sir! rather than the normal 8.8 why says i cos if you have a prob your insurance company(ie accident) may invalidate your insurance (****)says i best have them
Do you know how much extra they cost me (wallet took a good pounding as had near on a box full).

Don't know if this is a common problem.Anybody else heard such of a thing.

[Nogoingback]

Not sure what mine are prob only 8.8 but the man at sva would have picked up on that if they were wrong as he found my prop bolts were not strong enough.
I had a little bump not long ago and insurance sent a man round to have a look.
He showed no interest in anything like that i think they just wanted to be sure my car was damaged.
If you do crash the last thing that is going to snap is your bolts in fact everything but the bolts.

[Ben_Copeland]

Think he was talking you into spending more money unnecessarily...

SVA/IVE are happy with 8.8's

[daxmatt]

I used to to 4x4ing.when i started looking into it,ie buying all the fancy bolt ons jack ups etc,everything must be approved,which a lot of it is not,like wheel spacers for example.I could only find one set that were approved.(its some sort of ce mark)It scared me to death taking it out on the road incase i had an accident.

[Fury1630]

Speaking as an Injinear, what's going to happen first, a 12mm bolt shearing off or the suspension bracket tearing off the chassis?

The suspension brackets are usually 2 - 3mm mild steel - they will go long before an 8.8 grade bolt shears. But that's only logic - insurance companies don't usually operate on that. I'm not a stressman, but I'd be a bit wary of using VERY strong bolts in a fatigue critical location, though equaly the bolts are so over-specified that I'm sure it wouldn't be an issue in the real world.

To put it in context a 5mm dia bolt in decent quality steel will take roughly one tonne of force to shear it off.

A VERY rough sum says that if the car weighs 2/3 tonne / 4 bolts / 2 shear locations at each bolt, & braking & acceleration loads are 1G max thats 83 1/4 Kg at each shear location for a static load. We usually x 20 for shock loading (which it shouldn't see because the dampers & bushes will soak it up) = 1665 Kg, so a 6mm bolt shoud be just strong enough - don't quote me on this! As most cars have 12mm bolts that suggests that it's the contact area of the bracket that's the limiting factor, not the shear strength of the bolt. As I say I'm not a stressman & that's a VERY rough calculation, but indicates the sort of numbers we're looking at - anyone who is a stressman want to do it properly??

T

[James]

u need to get out more dude!

[daxmatt]

i tend to scrape around the garage floor and find something similar,then have another rumage for a washer,it might even be stainless,but it won't matter cos no ones gonna see it,then if i can't find a nut,i'll resort to taking one off something less important,but promise myself i'll replace it.

[James]

lol been their, it's the nuts you steal that are nyloc but forget to put a nyloc back untill it falls out!

[daxmatt]

That reminds me.......i must replace the downpipe of the gutter on the garage.
I was making a mock intercooler and need some inlet and outlet pipe,anything i had was to big or to small,then in my frustration i saw it .Off came the pipe.It worked a treat

[James]

cool! but you seriously have too much time on your hands lol