Stiffening plate removal / reinstallation

[bcredliner]

Originally Posted by crystalworks

Again, that's fine. It is your personal choice to reuse the bolts based one a statement from BMW, Bentley, etc. Have at it. Literally, nothing posted would satisfy your doubt. Again, fine. But don't discount people who have years of experience dealing with these bolts on tens (or possibly hundreds in the case of dealership or indy mechanics) of vehicles. You have made your decision, and I (don't know about everyone else) respect it.
My personal choice has nothing to do with my responses. Nor is it about doubt. I am not discounting personal experience and I respect all posts. I have also been DIYer for many decades and been faced with similar situations many times. Sometimes using experiences was fine and sometimes it wasn't. I have learned that a potential safety issue that I can't quantify or my decision might could cause a much bigger problem my best practice is to go to an expert for input to make a more informed decision. I would like it if you could provide proof that confirms your experience. What resolves the debate is an answer to why BMW makes the statement not to reuse the fasteners and what happens if they fail.
But when people come here asking if they can reuse the bolts, it's because they have already read the statement you are referring to. They are looking for real world experience from those who have NOT replaced their bolts. Your input is something they already know. If you had proof of some negative result of reusing them, that would be valid input. I include in every response (I think) to someone asking if the bolts can be reused that one member reported possible noises from his stiffening plate and/or the bolts.I think the primary driving force of those asking is the price of the new bolts. I am not making a claim either way. The responsibility to provide proof is to those making a claim. All I have been asking for is proof that BMWs statement is false. Personal experience is an indicator but does not answer the question.

As to the comment regarding mechanics reading this thread and laughing being a personal insult. If you are offended by that, or took it as a personal slight, you have thin skin. Mechanics reuse these bolts all day long. They'd laugh.

Often the response to calling someone out about an intended insult is that the person knows they can always deny it was a slam or make the comment about thin skin. I notice you repeated the comment again. Why did you feel it was necessary to make that comment not once but twice? How did it contribute to the debate?

Sarcasm?

And congrats on finding a way to get the bolts cheap. Seriously. For those who the main factor is the cost that should help considerably.

While you say nothing will be adequate proof to me you are still responding to my posts. Appears to me that most of responses I am getting just want to be right rather than find out what the the right thing to do is. I just want to know what is the right thing to do. The experience of form members should be insufficient and inadequate to make a confident personal decision. Experience is a good indicator but to be conclusive the number of individual contributions of that same experience must reach a number that is a statistically accurate endorsement along with other components for the study. Choosing a sampling method