Spare wheel carrier bolt

[Nevis8]

Its been mentioned in posts before, and now its happened to me. Tried to get to the spare wheel, and the ( overlong ? ) bolt holding the cage in place, is just solid, nothing will shift it.

Took it into the VW dealer who wants 1.5 hrs labour to cut it out and re-tap the hole. Assuming I could cut the bolt off, has anyone got any ideas as to what I could use as an alternative to the bolt to keep the cage in place ?

Peter

[homesea]

Mine did the same a while back. I got the bolt out in the end (heat it up), then just got a new bolt and slowly screwed it in and out (half a turn at a time) this cleaned the threads up. Copper slip it up and it should be ok.

If you put to much pressure on the bolt when trying to remove it, it will twist/rip the weld to the floor of the van.

While I was trying to find the correct size bolt I just used two big cable ties to hold it up.

[fenwick458]

sounds about right, VW want a bloody fortune to do a simple job. i would have a go trying to get some wd40in there, try to get as close as you can the the female threaded bit with a wire brush and then give it a good spraying, then leave for a bit and try again. failing that heat it up. and then once it's out, clean all the rust off, give it a thin coat of grease and refit the spare wheeel, and then when it's all done up just absolutely hammer it in grease up the entire length of it.

[phanson]

Took my spare out altogether as I didn't think the alloy would last very long before someone helped themselves! There is zero security on those things.

I just carry a can of that expanding goo and a small air compressor - same idea as the spare delete option.

It'll get me home then I can change the alloy over at leisure. If I go on a long trip I pop the spare in the back.