As to the high grade bolt? If you picked Grade 8, yes they are the strongest however, they are also the most brittle thus prone to breakage when shock loaded. The recommended grade for many applications are grade 5 where the strength is not what is needed, but the resistance to breakage due to shock is!

 

sw2cam I did jack it up initially as stated in the initial post but I missed the bolt head even my boy did. But this is a forum and questions are welcome. I also stated in a reply that I should have been more specific. My fault.

Rube I sent my daughter to get the bolts as I am going to do both sides and the parts guy at the GM dealership used to be the parts manager at Saturn with my boy (little did I know). He said that the bolt that was in there was wrong, it also was fully threaded. I am going with a grade 8 in metric as I think it still has a higher shear strength than grade 5. My Harleys rear engine mount bolts are like grade 15 or 18. The guy also said that if that bolt broke it would cause both tires to wear like they did. The daughter just went to get the new tires mounted and I am installing the new bolts. Then we can make an appointment for an alignment. Talk to ya'll soon.

 

It's just amazing the things that go unnoticed until someone like you has a problem. Good for you for being so tenacious and competent to find out that it seems to be a factory flaw. I'm sure somewhere down the line, there will be others that run into this and I hope that they find your posts.

 

Had the alignment ($70 for all 4 wheels from a dealership) done yesterday and it went just fine. The daughter is just jumping up and down happy. It rides like new. Make sure you ask questions first whether it is just you asking yourself or a friend or of course a forum. It helps you think things through. We do it at work for safety. Kind of a tailgate meeting before a job. The internet give us access to way more knowledge than years ago. That old Harley basket case years ago would not have taken 3 yrs. to put together. Thanks again. Got a hardtail to redo this winter.