Can't remove spare tire...

Try Vise-Grips first...

 

Let air out of the tire and push downward on the wheel (maybe with a helper) to relieve the strain on the bolt, might be easier to release.

 

Heat The plastic part with your heat gun now grab it with your large channel locks and remove the plastic now take your vice grips and insert them to the piece of metal that was spinning in the plastic take a shot of PB blaster with spray hose work it through one of the wheel slots to threaded hole let stand a few seconds now lefty Loosey the vise grips which are attached to the metal threaded rod Wella

 

Maybe you got a water leak or a spill, corroded where the temp spare hold-down bolt threads in? Try to get some spray solvent (WD40 or what have you) on the connection, let it soak, then rap the head of the hold-down bolt (not the plastic surround) with a drift pin an mallet. Might help.

taking air out of the tire may be impossible, with valve stem facing down.

 

Fair enough. I put an extension hose on mine so I can check/top up the spare without removing it.

I keep forgetting nobody else did that.

 

perhaps - 'practically' nobody else did that - would be more accurate - thankuverymuch
our 2nd hand '18 Volt came that way

i'd have otherwise likely not considered it until too late
.

 

I completed the thought, and connected the extension hose to a pressure switch to do the checking, and a compressor to do the topping up.

 

i second vice grips. it looks so pristine in there, hard to believe it stripped.

makes the case for checking the spare more often i guess, and maybe you can grab a salvage part for replacement.

 

Some kind of heating tool might also work.

 

Just cut away the plastic cap around the head of the hold down bolt with a vibrating cutting tool and remove the tire.

Soak the bottom of the bolt with Liquid Wrench , where it is threaded into the hole and leave it there overnight.

Take out the tire and grip the shank of the bolt with Vise Grips.

Chase out the hole with an M8x1.25 tap or rethreaded tap.

Get a new hold down bolt, and you're done.

 

Before I would go with all that ridiculousness I would try s mapgas type torch because that often loosens stuff up quite well
.

 

Where would you be applying the torch flame?



To the painted body steel boss where the bolt threads in?

If you can even reach there, with the wheel in place?

 

I might try slipping a putty knife under the grey plastic flange and lining it up for a hard whack from a hammer.

Then blast the grey plastic with an inverted computer duster spray can. A freeze spray; You are trying to make that plastic as cold and brittle as you can... then whack the butt of the putty knife handle with the hammer.

safety_glasses.jpg

 

You've already sacrificed the plastic by rotating it round and round and you're rounding out the square hole in the plastic correct something to that effect so now heat it with a heat gun better than a torch till the plastic is almost ready to melt and then lift up on it and pull it off that piece of metal now you can apply your vice grips and some PB blaster because you can get at and see the threads going down into the boss which is on a fitting which is welded to the center or the bottom of the trunk. If you ever get around to the junkyard you can get another gray plastic hold down assembly for free just put a little grease on it before you wump it in there.

 

I'd make a stud out of M8x1.25 threaded stainless steel rod and tread it to the center a 3/8'x1' aluminum flat bar machined on a rotary table on a vertical mill with a lip to match the wheel's center hole.

I'd lock the bottom into the bottom hole with a serrated flange nut.

Grabbing the flat bar would allow one to tighten and untighten it like a large wing nut.

 

large channelocks

 

I think it already works kind of like a large wing nut now with a spacer and the ring to keep it centered if it would just have been kept with a little anti-seize on it this would have never happened I'm guessing that stuff works wonders or having a real full size spare and rotating it that rotation time will always keep that nut working

 

If you have water issues back there remove the rubber plug that's closest to the hybrid battery in the spare tire well this way here water will get into the trunk wherever it's coming fall down onto the lower level of the trunk in the spare tire well and naturally run right out the hole that you just opened so water can't puddle get in there high enough to weld the stud on the end of that gray nut into its boss and make a big mess like it has possibly now water in the trunk is very common in these cars so if you make the water pass through at all points where it can get out like the battery tray the space like the battery tray on the other side underneath the plastic tray there's a couple rubber plugs that need to be knocked out so water if it should build up over there passes right through obviously in the battery tray you don't want water building up in the winter and freezing so punch out the plugs there's a couple places you can make a couple strategic 1/4-in holes and then water will pass through perfect.