This is why I don't work on my own car

Got my wheels back from refurb and this happened getting the cap bolt in

Then this happened when using a tap on the rear wheel hole to see if that would help:

On newly refurbed wheels.....I am ready to shoot myself

Do you know if the wheels sand blasted or chemically stripped? If they were sand blasted my guess would be that you have blasting media in there or when blasting the threads weren't protected.

Unfortunately I think you are going to have to drill the holes out and re-tap them, if you attempt this yourself make sure you use a carbide drill bit.

How do the other threads seem? The one in the top picture to the left looks a little rough.

On the plus side, the wheels are looking amazing!! We need pictures of the wheels!!

I've decided not to touch them anymore and I'm going to get them looked at by someone who isn't mechanically handicapped. I've fitted some other bits today which went fine. I was going to update my thread but I'm too mad at myself to do so

Here's a picture of the wheels:

Doesn't do them justice. When the sun hits them, they shine bright like the polished rims.

Wow they look great! Good idea, you don't want to make it worse... not like they are a cheap set of wheels!!

Nasty, I feel your pain, always seems the easy five minute jobs that go tits up. On the plus side the wheels look great.

Not sure i understand exactly but don't your caps fix to the wheel with one cap head screw ?

Wow they look great! Good idea, you don't want to make it worse... not like they are a cheap set of wheels!!

 

 

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Isn't that the truth! I thought about getting a spare but you can't, you have to buy a set which are a fortune!

 

Nasty, I feel your pain, always seems the easy five minute jobs that go tits up. On the plus side the wheels look great.

 

Yea, I did all the trim prices, bonnet struts etc with no issues but these wheels had a vendetta I swear

 

Not sure i understand exactly but don't your caps fix to the wheel with one cap head screw ?

 

I think you can get those types. But mine has two fixing bolts instead.

 

I think you can get those types. But mine has two fixing bolts instead.

Do you have a photo of your caps, the back side

I don't think it would be too hard to turn the centre cap around by a few degrees

then drill & tap new fixing holes, you could use the cap as a guide for the drill

or you could measure the pcd of the holes in the cap then transfer onto the wheel

If you did that route i'd recommend getting a toolmakers centre drill to position

the holes

I've found some pics of the cap you have and it looks pretty straight forward to fix your drama as long

as you have a steady hand and use a small lightweight drill with a new drill bit

Easy fix, don't worry. As DnK said, lightweight drill and new drill bit...or take them back to the wheel refurb guys if you don't want to do it [emoji1360]

Remove the broken screw.

Hold the centre cap in place but say 30 degrees around from the existing holes, hold the cap firmly in place, use a drill the same

diameter as the holes in the centre cap and mark the position on the wheel, you should be able to do that by hand, then use a small

centre drill to centre the new holes, then drill with correct tapping size drill, clean out any swarf then tap the holes, use some paraffin

or wd40 as a lube when tapping and don't go mad, if using a standard hand tap do two turns then back half a turn and repeat till

you get enough thread depth, be careful bottoming out the tap as it will break very easily due to being a small diameter

Your only drilling aluminium so you only need a normal HSS drill bit but i'd buy a new one if you haven't got one so

it cuts a nice true hole

Cheers for the advice guys. I should be able to get the bolt out with mole grips but I'll be going to the wheel refurber Tuesday as there's got to be more than paint in those holes if it snapped a tap piece so easily

If you get the bolt out get a scriber or something with a smaller diameter with a sharp point

on it and scrape down into hole, it could be shot blast media or even clogged up with paint, doesn't

take much to break small diameter taps

DO NOT try and drill the tap out, `cos you will not do it and things will go from bad to worse, instead do as dnk says, get new holes drilled and tapped offset radially to the old ones. Next time leave greased bolts in tapped hoes in anything sent for media blasting as it WILL lodge in threads and it WILL grab bolts and taps if not removed. Worse case is media left in threads then paint spray applied to seal it in, as you now know....