- 04/29/2014
- 1 Min Read
- By: Gareth Foley
Different Types of Automotive Fasteners & Their Uses
Every car is in essence numerous pieces of metal that are held together by an even greater amount of varying fasteners. Some of these fasteners are pretty common but you will occasionally come across a fastener that you can’t identify readily. These types of fasteners are potentially aggravating to find mostly because there’s a good chance even if you could (or already knew what it was) the people you speak to in order to find the right driver might not know what you’re talking about. I experienced this last week.
About a week ago when working on a Volkswagen Rabbit I came across a style of fastener I don’t see too much of. In fact, I needed to look up this fastener name just to make sure that I was referring to it correctly. The fastener type is called a triple square and it’s basically a 12 point torx set. Volkswagen decided to use this style drive as a counter hold for the sway bar links as well as the pinch bolt for the front strut assemblies. Anyone who works religiously on these cars likely already has a socket set just for dealing with these types of fasteners. Some people claim you can simply use an over sized torx socket but being that a triple square is a security style fastener you run a high risk of stripping it out and that would not be a good time.
I already knew that I was going to have a difficult time finding a set in order to complete work on this car. Triple square fasteners are not common and even fewer people know what they are actually called. I've heard them referred to as a “12 point torx bit” or “the thing that has the 12 point drive”. When you’re looking for a specific tool to remove a fastener it is extremely helpful to know exactly what the drive type is called. That particular day I called at least a dozen places and stopped into at least two dozen stores. During that stretch of time and the massive amount of aggravation I experienced I was able to find one person in one store who knew what I was talking about. The only reason why they knew what I was talking about is because that person owned and did work on their VW.
I wasted about two hours of time because no one knew what I was talking about. This is definitely not going to be the case for most styles of fasteners you will find. However, there is always the potential for that one fastener to completely ruin your day when you are making a repair. I found this nice spread of fastener style and drive types this past weekend and I think it’s a valuable resource. It doesn't have the triple square that I had to deal with but it covers most of the common ones you will come across. This is a great reference for anybody working on their vehicle and more.
Bolt Depot Fastener Type Chart
About the Author
Gareth runs the BMW catalog at FCP Euro, he can be reached at gareth@fcpeuro.com
