Just got a Curt hitch today. Install seemed easy enough and got it bolted up. Trouble came when I went to go torque it to spec. It said 45 ft/lb for the front bolt and 23 ft/lb for the rear. Front torqued and moved the the two rear bolts. The nuts are welded inside the trunk support beam. Went to tighten and it got tighter then all sudden felt it get loose. It would not get any tighter. Which means the welded nuts broke off. Any idea what I can do? Pretty frustrating.

 

Is there a way to get to the nuts with super glue? If you could get some super glue between the nut and frame it might hold it just enough to tighten the bolt. This method has worked for me before.

 

I don't think so. Even if I could, no way superglue is going to hold when the spot welds failed. Guess this means cutting. Either the floor under the spare tire to get to the nuts or cut it all off and forego the hitch.

Pretty disappointed by Curt as to not warn people about the potential of the nuts coming undone.

 

I couldn't remember what brand hitch I had installed when I replied earlier. This is the hitch I went with, but it sounds like you have a different model:

Trailer Hitch for 2012 Honda Fit - Curt C11064

When I was installing mine one of the nuts broke loose from the bendable metal strap that allows you to fish them into position above the factory mounting bracket toward the middle of the car. I used some epoxy glue to glue the nut back onto the strap and it held well enough to thread the bolt in from the bottom and tighten it up. The glue doesn't have to hold against the full tightening force that you'll be putting on the bolt. Once the bolt cinches down friction will do most, but not all, of the holding to get it tight.

-Dustin

 

Yeah, I have a GD and it mounts totally differently. Looking at those pictures, it looks like you have better access to those nuts. GD's seem to be totally enclosed. Also, I sprayed the bolts/nuts that were on there with plenty of PB Blaster beforehand, so not sure if epoxy would work at all.

But thanks for chiming in. Guess I'll keep an eye on it while I think of what to do next.

 

Oh, I see. That makes sense. Good luck finding a solution.

If it makes you feel any better, most of my car repairs and modifications usually have some kind of problem and never go as smoothly as they should. The Curt hitch I installed requires you to drill one hole in the frame rail on one side. What they don't make clear is that the hole is being drilled in the high tensile steel of the frame rail, which I found is extremely difficult to drill through with the size bit that's required. Then once you drill the hole for the bolt you have to elongate the hole so that you can slip in the large rectangular shaped washer that goes inside the frame rail. I had to end up buying an expensive carbide tipped router bit and WORKED even with that to get the hole finished. I had hot metal dust buried in the skin of my hand when I got finished (should have worn gloves). But, I got the hitch on there and it's definitely not going anywhere!

-Dustin

 

so what did you end up doing? I'm looking at adding a hitch to my 2011 sport, i liked the Curt for its 3 points of attachment but after reading this, Im thinking about drawtite or hidden. 25 & 45 ft/lbs isn't much are you sure you didn't over tighten it? Im sure you worked through it by now but you could cut the heads of the bolts off and poke the rest of the bolts through and use a telescoping magnet (harbor freight) to fish it back out maybe-

 

The mounts for the GD are terrible. I wish you good luck.

The GE and newer mounts are MUCH better. My hitch install on my 2009 went quickly with no issue, and I torqued it WAY higher than the rated spec. IMO, 45 ft/lb for a bolt that large is a bit low, especially when you're going to have a trailer back there.