Using Service Manual recommendations/requirements

[Qx4donald]

Hey, everyone.

 

I was looking through the FSM for torque settings on the nuts & bolts for front and rear suspension, and I noticed they had some bold "X" icons on some of the nut/bolts in the drawings.

 

I understand that this "X" is defined as:

"always replace after every disassebly"

 

My question to everyone is... do you follow this service requirement?

For example, when I took my front strut asseblies to be dis- and re-assembled at a local shop (I don't have the necessary tools to compress and re-asseble a strut), I forgot to hand them the new strut-piston-rod nut.

 

In addition, all the nuts and bolts that held the strut in place - I re-used them. I'm guessing these are nearly the original nuts & bolts as the previous owner probably didn't service the suspension.

 

Am I gonna myself by not having replaced those nuts and bolts?

 

Thanks for all the input.

[nunya]

I'm not always the "practice what I preach" type but honestly, if it ain't a normal wearable (take in context how you wish )thing or say a torque-to-yield fastener, I don't personally worry too much.

[Desert89]

When a nut is recomended to be a replace item it's becouse it has built in locking feature. Usually either a nylon insert or a pinched in portion at the top of the nut. As long as it takes a wrench, not your fingers, to turn the nut while the bolt threads are engaged in the lock part of the nut you are fine. Usually a nylon insert lock nut is good for 3 or 4 uses.

[sewebster]

I try to replace the stuff the FSM says when possible, but other times I don't really think it is necessary. You are supposed to replace the circlip at the end of the CVs every time for instance. I wasn't careful and bent one (figuring I would be just picking more up at the dealer anyway) but they had to special order it and said they never even replaced them! But try to use good judgement. There are some things you really should replace.

[Qx4donald]

Good points! Thanks everyone. I'm a little more relieved to hear so.

 

The bolts that I dealt with had torque specs between 30-80 ft-lbs IIRC.

In handling the bolts and nuts (don't get carried away with this ), I didn't notice any abnormal wear, not that the naked eye can detect such issues.

 

Nonetheless, I'll pay more attention next time I'm removing significant nuts and bolts from the car.

Thanks!

[HydroCeramics]

Bolts and screws I generally don't worry about unless there's stripping or other damage. I just clean up the hardware and reinstall. Self locking nuts I change if I have replacements and definitely if it's on a critical component. Also, when a higher torque is required (200+ in-lb, my rule of thumb)or it's something that undergoes a lot of stress from general use I make it a point to replace the hardware. Nine times out of ten on my own vehicle I don't really bother, but at work it's a different story.

[morpheus]

As the others said, they are usually locking bolts

 

for example. if you look up the oil pan bolts, it sais to replace them every dissassembly, If you look at the new bolts, they simply come with locktite on them