ARRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!! I HATE captured nuts!

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CrashTestDummy
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Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2015 2:31 pm
Location: Pearland, Texas

ARRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!! I HATE captured nuts!

Post by CrashTestDummy »

Yesterday was oil change day for the Caprice. It looks like this may have been the first oil change I've done on it since I got it. Even though the car is a DD, I don't 'DD' that much anymore. When we go out to run chores on the weekends, we usually take her PPV, and my Caprice stays in the garage on the battery tender. I thought I had done it before, but there was a Carquest filter on it, and I don't use Carquest filters.

Side note 1: What is it about oil change places that the guys in the pit are so limp-wristed they don't screw the filter on tightly?!? I discovered the filter on our Tahoe so loose, I could unscrew it with my finger tips, and the one on the Caprice was less than hand tight. We were danged lucky they didn't lose their seal!

Anyway, while under the car, I noticed the rear inboard hold down for the driver's side fender liner was not through the hole in the fender liner. Additionally, it was a bolt. Thinking that some idiot jammed a bolt in where the plastic push pin goes, I figured I'd 'fix this right quick' after I get the oil drained and filter replaced.

Image

Bolt and inner fender liner on driver's side.

Side note 2: I need to get a bigger drain pan! My current 'big' pan looks to be about 9 quarts. Draining the oil out of the Caprice REALLY filled it up!

Anyway, once the oil change was done, I went to work on getting the bolt out. The hole through the inner fender liner was ripped. I figured that someone may have run over something that pushed real hard on the fender liner so that it both popped the push pin out, and ripped the hole. I started removing the 10 mm bolt, and it just kept spinning. Figuring it may be in the hole past the threads, I jammed a screw driver behind the washer and went at it with a ratchet. Still no progress. After working on it for a while, I just got angry and broke out the angle grinder and cut the head off.

It was then I discovered the bolt was actually in a captured nut that's pressed into the body!!!!! Spin the bolt, spin the nut! Damnit!!

After working for almost an hour to try to swedge down the nut and then try to remove the rest of the bolt, I gave up and drilled a second hole for one of the plastic push pins they use for just about EVERY other hold down for the fender liner!!

Image

WTF do you use at least three different ways to secure ONE part to a car?!? Plastic push pins, 10mm bolts AND Torx-head bolts?!? What's the madness in that?!? I also replaced the missing push pin holding the bottom outboard end of the fender liner to the car.

Anyway, a half-hour oil change job turned into a 3-hour repair project for me.
Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas
2012 Caprice 9C1
1992 B4C 1LE Camaro
2018 Tahoe PPV (her car)
1995 DGGM Impala SS
1985 Firebird - 310 LS1 C Prepared autocross car.
1980 Bluebird Wanderlodge
And some others
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kevink
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Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2015 12:55 pm

Re: ARRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!! I HATE captured nuts!

Post by kevink »

CrashTestDummy wrote:It was then I discovered the bolt was actually in a captured nut that's pressed into the body!!!!! Spin the bolt, spin the nut! Damnit!!
That right there is the only thing they really messed up on these cars. They SUCK. The worst part about it is that they often have loctite on them which is apparently stronger than the bond between the nut and whatever the nut is pressed into. If you ever need to remove any bolts that thread into these nuts, your best bet is to soak it with penetrating lubricant, heat, hold the nut with needle nose pliers if possible, and pray. I have encountered these bastages on the rad support, the crash bar, and on the front left frame rail securing the trans cooler lines.
2011 9C3: 11.48 @118.
lastcall190
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Re: ARRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!! I HATE captured nuts!

Post by lastcall190 »

Captured nuts are what they are called? Good now I know what to curse at.

One for the rear seat belt disconnected from the body and now I have to find a clever way to both remove the bolt and find a suitable solution. I don't know how I can even get anything up in that small cavity to hold the nut to torque on it...

God I hate those things.

OP, I can hear the frustration in your post :lol:
2012 Caprice
2008 CVPI

Both gone but not forgotten...
CrashTestDummy
Posts: 2300
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2015 2:31 pm
Location: Pearland, Texas

Re: ARRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!! I HATE captured nuts!

Post by CrashTestDummy »

kevink wrote:
CrashTestDummy wrote:It was then I discovered the bolt was actually in a captured nut that's pressed into the body!!!!! Spin the bolt, spin the nut! Damnit!!
That right there is the only thing they really messed up on these cars. They SUCK. The worst part about it is that they often have loctite on them which is apparently stronger than the bond between the nut and whatever the nut is pressed into. If you ever need to remove any bolts that thread into these nuts, your best bet is to soak it with penetrating lubricant, heat, hold the nut with needle nose pliers if possible, and pray. I have encountered these bastages on the rad support, the crash bar, and on the front left frame rail securing the trans cooler lines.
Heck, since the car came from Wisconsin, I figured road salt probably got to it

Hmm, adding heat might be a bit difficult for that one, since the inner fender liner is plastic.
Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas
2012 Caprice 9C1
1992 B4C 1LE Camaro
2018 Tahoe PPV (her car)
1995 DGGM Impala SS
1985 Firebird - 310 LS1 C Prepared autocross car.
1980 Bluebird Wanderlodge
And some others
Do YOU have my SPID?
CrashTestDummy
Posts: 2300
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2015 2:31 pm
Location: Pearland, Texas

Re: ARRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!! I HATE captured nuts!

Post by CrashTestDummy »

lastcall190 wrote:Captured nuts are what they are called? Good now I know what to curse at.

One for the rear seat belt disconnected from the body and now I have to find a clever way to both remove the bolt and find a suitable solution. I don't know how I can even get anything up in that small cavity to hold the nut to torque on it...

God I hate those things.

OP, I can hear the frustration in your post :lol:
Yeah, my wife came home from a convention and came out to the shop to see me. She saw my demeanor and just walked away. That was probably a good thing then. :lol:

Good ol' Aussie construction calls for significant use of double panels, so I guess captured nuts are a necessity. But yeah, they do not seem to have been implemented that well. I guess I could have dropped the engine cradle, grabbed my hole saw and cut into the panel behind the panel the nut is set in, but it seemed to me the plastic push-pin was probably fine for this application.

I think the ground strap for the batteries use these things, at least for the secondary battery, it seems that way. But luckily, the bolt holding the ground strap down broke when I was trying to remove it. It seemed to have rusted, which I attributed to salt mist getting to it during it's service time. I'm guessing that acid fumes from the battery probably got to it. Either way, I 'lucked out' with it breaking. :-/
Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas
2012 Caprice 9C1
1992 B4C 1LE Camaro
2018 Tahoe PPV (her car)
1995 DGGM Impala SS
1985 Firebird - 310 LS1 C Prepared autocross car.
1980 Bluebird Wanderlodge
And some others
Do YOU have my SPID?
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kevink
Posts: 480
Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2015 12:55 pm

Re: ARRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!! I HATE captured nuts!

Post by kevink »

CrashTestDummy wrote:Heck, since the car came from Wisconsin, I figured road salt probably got to it
My car is from Mississippi, has never seen snow or salt, and they were still a problem with only 7,000 miles on the clock. It's just a crappy design.
2011 9C3: 11.48 @118.
CrashTestDummy
Posts: 2300
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2015 2:31 pm
Location: Pearland, Texas

Re: ARRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!! I HATE captured nuts!

Post by CrashTestDummy »

kevink wrote:
CrashTestDummy wrote:Heck, since the car came from Wisconsin, I figured road salt probably got to it
My car is from Mississippi, has never seen snow or salt, and they were still a problem with only 7,000 miles on the clock. It's just a crappy design.
Wow!

I'm really surprised at how little rust was found on our car. I was expecting much worse. One thing that WAS an issue was one of the rear cradle bolts the dealer had real problems with when doing work back there.
Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas
2012 Caprice 9C1
1992 B4C 1LE Camaro
2018 Tahoe PPV (her car)
1995 DGGM Impala SS
1985 Firebird - 310 LS1 C Prepared autocross car.
1980 Bluebird Wanderlodge
And some others
Do YOU have my SPID?
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elc32955
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Re: ARRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!! I HATE captured nuts!

Post by elc32955 »

Two words. "Government job".

'nuff said! :lol: :lol: :lol:
System Manager and your tour guide for the day. 2015 Caprice w/LFX, former NC DPS staff car. Partial hybrid G8/SS/Camaro SS interior mods, SS MyLink radio upgrade, 2016 Camaro V6 rims, GMPP Malibu chrome exhaust tips, otherwise bone stock for now.
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