Originally Posted by Richard Moss

The remaining surface there is reasonably flat - it might be worth trying to drill through the remaining part of the wheelnut (avoiding the stud and wheel) and trying to split it to release the grip.

Originally Posted by kr98664

To make it easier to drill, make a little guide block. Find a shallow nut with the same threads. Heat it red hot with a torch and then let it cool slowly. Now that it's annealed...

Originally Posted by 2002jeff

let me just say how much I love this Blog. you guys are great. WELL.....I did get the Erwin bolt remover kit, but it did not fit. the remaining nut was too big. so I thought I would use my chisel to break loose the rest of the nut so I could use the bolt/nut remover kit. not the right choice. instead of breaking the remainder free all I did was mash it around. the metal is way to hard for a that. now the drilling it out is a good idea but now I might have really messed up the threads. so now no laughing but I will show what it looks like now. also I got a bit mad that my idea was not working so... as most of us do. I started hitting it harder....hay Im a guy. I also figured the lug nut was cracked at the last installation, because it broke free with very little effort. love the idea of making a jig for drilling the LUG but will try to drill the reaming of the nut first. so many other items on this car were such an easy fix with the vast knowledge of this board I guess I got a bit cocky and might have messed this up royally.

Originally Posted by Davie

That was then and this is now. Between then and now, that's a different story!

With a matter of days before being pointed south and launched into the unknown, I was still running around 'fixing' stuff. New wiper blades for the front at a whopping £1.76p each and another trip the the breakers in search of a n/s/f washer jet, an o/s/f mirror assembly and a spare wheel. Washer jet sorted, mirror assembly remained elusive and spare wheel... well I kinda got lucky and happened across these,



Ok, so not exactly required but given they were shod with four matching Bridgestone Potenzas (rear are as new) all round and my original alloys were properlly scabby, plus the fact they wanted £40 for a single wheel / tyre, these made sense. If nothing else, I figured I could sell them on. Cue the wails for the "OMG! Part worns. You'll die" brigade. I also found one of those handy under boot storage trays. Job done.

Next, replace the worn o/s/f rack end that had been highlighted in the MoT. Wasn't critical but it was a bit wandery on the motorway so with 1,000+ ahead, for the want of £13.00 it made sense to replace it. It also made sense to chuck the wee man at Kerbside Motors £20 to fit in, which I'm glad a dig as he made short work of the seized track rod end and the mega tight inner streeing arm with some fancy tools. A further £20 to have the geometry checked and adjusted and we were cooking with gas.

Or not... I also asked him to remove the locking nuts a) they're **** b) who steals wheels these days and c) I didn't fancy fannying around at 3am, in the rain at the side of the M6 with a puncture. And that's where it all went wrong. Three came out no problem, the fourth - not a chance. 2hrs of power bats, air guns, impact drivers, swearing and even the proper RAC / AA approved tool and the nut was refusing to move.



Google suggested McGard do a drill out kit, in essence three sleeves with a progressively larger hole in the centre so you can drill out the locker whilst remaining central. Only issue, it was Saturday and I was leaving on the Monday. A mercy call went out and saw me armed with some insanely sharp drill bits and a man sized power drill. 2hrs later and I'd made a 2mm deep hole. I swore a lot and considered calling Enterprise. Final attempt, remove all the other nuts and drive the car in a circle hoping it'd a) stretch the bolt or b) distort the seat in the alloy and thus relieve some pressure. Did it work? Did it fu...

Dummy well and truly spat out the pram, final mercy call went out and it was off to see a mate of a mate who again had a crack with the pukka lock nut kit - ie the one that you leather a brass (?) stud down into the locker, thet then forms to the pattern and then in theory with a few smacks and an impact driver, job done. Always works, yet to have one that didn't come out. First for everything. I sukled some more.

Decision time, do we heat the bolt from the back but risk damaging the bearing and associated parts or simply admit defeat and keep drilling. I looked at the new wheels in the boot, looked at the scabby original alloy that was sat there, sneering at me...

Now, again those from an engineering / OCD / Daily Mail background, look away now...







Lock nut removal, the man's method. £25.00 and one wheel lighter, the four replacement alloys were on, one of the best original ones took up residence as a spare and with the tank filled it was M74 bound, next stop Bristol. 5hrs (ish) later and from there onto Devon. Couple of days doing best man duties then back to Bristol, quick visit to the city centre for old times sake and then it was aim north and back to base George and don't spare the horses.

Granted, it's now a sort of dark grey colour and the interior smells a bit iffy but I somewhat astounded to say it never once missed a beat. Compared to the old V70 diesel, it's infinitely more refined and comfortable and despite the guff-o-matic box, it seemingly returned 27mpg for the entire 1150 mile trip, which isn't that bad given it sat at a steady 80ish for the majority of the trip plus did a good few cross country miles into north Devon. Oil useage was nil, coolant useage was nil, AA useage was nil.

Few wee niggles to sort - rear 12v socket doesn't work so it was a constant battle to keep the DVD / phones charged,. Really need an o/s/f mirror assembly and the n/s/f headlight as filled with condensation for some reason. Nothing major though. It's now being drafted into daily commute / school run mode then it's back to Devon in three weeks again.

I'm actually quite attached to it now, so much so it's since earned it's place and thus has been named Helga... much like the previous five Volvos.