What does M14 etc mean (bolts)

[ewanc0]

I ordered new inner tie rods from eurocarparts. They claim to be the right ones for my car but when i wen t fit them today i found that the male thread at the the rack end is too fat.
Now euro says that they are M14. Does this mean the diameter of the thread??
I measured the new ones and they are 17mm dia. but the old ones have a 14mm dia.
I'm going to try and phone tomorrow so if i sound like i know what i'm talking about then i might get on better.
Cheers aye

Ewan

[JIM C]

M14 means it is metric with a 14mm outside diameter.

Jim

[Jimcoted]

M14 is also telling you that it is a 14mm thread so there is no way that a 17mm is going to fit. When we order bolts for our products they are ordered as M8 x 90 which means 8mm thread 90mm in length.

[thealchemyst]

yeah the m is for metric then the number in this case 14 is the diameter of the bar the thread would be made from.
the issue with the inner track rod ends is there are two different manufactrers of o.e. racks one uses m14 the other m17 and either can be fitted so in theory they "are correct" fitment for your model, just not your actual car!
hope this helps

[ewanc0]

Thanks all. They have actually sent the wrong ones though because the ad describes them as M14 yet they have sent M17. They were supposed to phine me back yesterday but of course didn't

[Jimcoted]

I don't ever wait for them to "phone me back" I call them unless ,as in the case of my ex-aluminium supplier, it's an inquiry and I can get the product elsewhere then I treat the promise as a remark for them to be judged upon. In their case they failed to call me back and have now lost my business. So chase them up.

[ewanc0]

I would get on to them if they would stop taking bl**dy days off