Nuts - decent quality metric sought!

[dave]

I'm soon to start replacing the clutch on a great little toy car (Micra). It's worth the trouble ('onest). However having taken a good look around the various nuts n bolts that will have to come off are in a sorry state ie rusted up heads. They are safe enough but it's just the usual state they get into. Apart from the Nissan dealer, is there someplace I can get the correct quality nuts n bolts to replace them someone can suggest?

I see B&Q have metric n&B but I wouldn't use them to hold say the brake caliper on! Actually I'm only guessing they are metric - need to look further to confirm. Thanks

[visionset]

Any will do so long as you see the hi-tensile '8.8' stamped on them.

[John]

8.8 is the minimum you should accept. eBay sells lots of these. Avoid stainless unless they are in non-critical applications as they're not strong enough.

John

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'd be surprised if they really do need replacing. Nuts are easy enough to find though, but some bolts may be more difficult.

Yes, I don't think B&Q ones are high tensile. Nor is the rust protection on them much good.

This is one supplier that specialises in car stuff.

[Harry Bloomfield]

They will be metric, almost all fixings on cars are these days.

Most towns have a nut, bolt and fixings specialist, just use the yellow pages. Some parts are critical so make sure you swap like for like as in tensile strength - look for numbers stamped on the the faces such a

8.8. Some of the bolts will be special as in made for the job, perhaps with a unique thread and shoulder length, but for everything else you should be able to get them from a normal supplier.

Same often applies to bearings, seals, drive belts and chains - as in much cheaper from an wholesale supplier rather than a dealer.

[Andy Dingley]

place for vehicle fasteners.

[Autolycus]

Much good advice from the usual culprits, though I think Namrick are one of the more expensive suppliers. One other point to watch: Japanese makers often use non-standard head sizes on their bolts, so if you find you need spanner sizes other than 8, 10, 13, 17, and 19mm, chances are it's not an ISO metric fastener. Whether or not this matters in a particular application has to be judged at the time. The common ISO metric fasteners that you'd get by just asking for, say, "an M8 nut" are from the Coarse series, but it's possible you'll come across fasteners from the Fine series, too.

All of which is a strong argument for going into a friendly fastener supplier (oxymoron) and asking for "one of these". Beware minimum invoice values, though beer tokens are sometimes an effective currency.

[Malcolm Stewart]

Does this mean that hi-tensile nuts etc. are now meeting their relevant specifications? I can remember a Safety Alert some years ago when sub-standard hi-tensile nuts had crept into the UK supply system. Fortunately, we only used avionic certified fasteners for our critical work, but common stuff tested as being pretty bad.

[John]

It's not only the Japanese that do that. I've come across Ford exhaust manifold nuts that weren't mm or AF. Rover 100 engine mounts similarly odd sized. Eventually found a BSW socket fitted perfectly even though they were M12 thread.

John

[Autolycus]

Well yes, but I didn't want to have to admit I'd ever worked on a Ford, or a Rover 100, or a French car, or even a French engine in an English car.

Proper cars, of course, have square-headed bolts.

[Andy Dingley]

I don't recall ever having seen a square headed bolt. Square-headed screws yes, and plenty of square nuts on studs.

In the other group (not sheds, the other other one), Tom of NZ would no doubt argue that proper engines used studs and not bolts.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I well remember trying to remove the cylinder head from a Triumph Mayflower. Side valve engine with ally head. Studs and nuts for the fixings. It was so well stuck I had to remove the pistons and whack it off via the bores - after exhausting all possibilities with releasing fluid and heat, etc. Studs have a habit of doing this...