Lucky escape and a warning to all.

[kevinandkate]

As it was raining this morning I decided to put the new discs onto Fifi. Remembering Malcolms advice to undo the drive shaft nut before jacking it up, I popped off the two covers and found the left wheel hub nut to be on its way off on its own, in fact 1 full turn and it was off. Remembering my pre retirement occupation examining vehicles, if one nut is going to unwind itself it will be the nearside (left) driven wheel. The reason it had come undone was the nuts have a nylon insert which is designed to grip the threaded part, however after a few removals over time, the insert looses its ability to grip the threads and the wheel spinning mainly anticlockwise can very easily cause the nut to come loose and come off with potentially drastic consequences. Its worth checking the tightness of these nuts and if in doubt replace the nuts with new ones.

I also changed the exhaust while I was at it due to a few holes appearing here and there as she is being used every day after being stationary for 5 years. What a pleasure to be able to remove the entire exhaust without even needing to jack up the car.

 

[malcolm]

Lucky find - that bolt is all that really holds the hub on. Good advice about the nyloc nut, though I'd guess this one hadn't been tightened properly in the first place. All the ones I've played with have taken an extra long bar to loosen.

 

[angel]

These are meant to be torqued to 120 Nm. Even with a new nut and tightened to torque, I have come across one or two that had loosened after some time. Renault must had put a castellated nut/split pin there... our best bet is a new nut with thread locking compound.

 

[DaveP]

just found a loose one on my tl, pair of new nyloks tomorrow methinks, i didn't crank them too tight when I replaced my hubs as I stripped the thread on a driveshaft (very annoying) when I did the first one up.