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Joys of home mechanics

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Keith
Keith Posts: 2,924 Forumite
Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
Changing the lower arms on my Ka today, one bolt won't budge, so I soak it with Plusgas, it still won't budge. Get breaker bar out still won't move, then it does, yay!

Oops no I've rounded the head of the bolt, off to the motorfactors get a socket which grips the walls of the bolt, get home, still won't budge.

Now, faced with a completely knackered bolt, I try to hammer a smaller socket on, it won't go on, crap!

So after 3 hours to do a job which is basically 3 bolts, I decide to put it back together to get it to the local garage, do you think I could line the knackered bush up?

Another 3 hours later, I've managed to slip a bolt through the bush and dropped the car back to the road. What a joy!

It's all down to the design of the lower arm, there isn't enough room to get a spanner in from above, the bushes bolt like this
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|
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Where as on my other car they are like this ]-[ and it takes about 10 minutes! Hopefully my local garage will be able to get it out tomorrow :mad:
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Comments

  • The garage will weld a nut to the head of the bolt and get it off that way, or drill into it and remove it with an easy-out.

    Next time, use a hammer and freeze-release spray.
  • vaio
    vaio Posts: 12,287 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    What do they say? If a hammer doesn’t fix it you need a bigger hammer. If that still doesn’t fix it you have an electrical problem
  • anewman
    anewman Posts: 9,200 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Ouch, this is making me doubt whether I should try changing the steering rack myself now on my 14 year old car. This must be the most annoying thing that can possibly happen when doing things on a car. Suppose the best approach is plusgas type stuff, and check I can budge all bolts before taking them all off.

    Freeze release spray seems a good idea in principle, supposedly helps shrink the metal, but didn't help when I had a screw head snap off and tried to use mole grips on the body of it.
  • lil_me
    lil_me Posts: 13,186 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    If it'll snap when you do it it'll probably snap when a garage does it, which would mean a garage would charge you more for the job.
    One day I might be more organised...........:confused:
    GC: £200
    Slinkies target 2018 - another 70lb off (half way to what the NHS says) so far 25lb
  • anewman
    anewman Posts: 9,200 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    lil_me wrote: »
    If it'll snap when you do it it'll probably snap when a garage does it, which would mean a garage would charge you more for the job.

    I thought most garages quoted a price and stuck to the quote? Unless something *really* serious happened. Don't know if a snapped bolt is serious, I guess most garages would have the tools and know-how to deal with them.
  • lil_me
    lil_me Posts: 13,186 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    anewman wrote: »
    I thought most garages quoted a price and stuck to the quote? Unless something *really* serious happened. Don't know if a snapped bolt is serious, I guess most garages would have the tools and know-how to deal with them.
    Not always, I've seen it cost £600 for someone to have work done because bolts snapped, they were quoted £350 initially. Some will quote a job, state they will definately not charge more than a specific amount but many won't.
    One day I might be more organised...........:confused:
    GC: £200
    Slinkies target 2018 - another 70lb off (half way to what the NHS says) so far 25lb
  • anewman
    anewman Posts: 9,200 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Oh to OP, just had a thought, I wonder if there's an imperial socket that's somewhere between the sizes of the sockets you tried that would successfully hammer on and shift it.

    Or there's these universal spanner things that are supposed to be able to grip round pipe. http://www.jmldirect.com/Universal-Spanner-Set-PU9394/ I got a set from Home Bargains for £1.99 I think, so if there's one near you it could be worth a try.
  • Andy_L
    Andy_L Posts: 13,017 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Anglegrinder. you know it makes sense :-)
  • I love stories like this. Spent many a happy hour doing work on my mini (non BMW) I have a cupboard full of "special" tools ranging from bent coat-hangers to something that looks like the fourth bridge which have got me out of trouble in the past. Dont give up!
  • Keith
    Keith Posts: 2,924 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    anewman wrote: »

    Or there's these universal spanner things that are supposed to be able to grip round pipe. http://www.jmldirect.com/Universal-Spanner-Set-PU9394/ I got a set from Home Bargains for £1.99 I think, so if there's one near you it could be worth a try.

    My neighbour has one of those which we tried, but it wouldn't put enough torque on the bolt to undo it.

    I don't think the bolt is going to break, if it does it'll be a case of dropping the subframe, a friend had a similar problem on his Mondeo and he was able to cut the bolt above the lower arm, this isn't possible because the gap isn't big enough to then lift the nut and bolt head out.

    Off to the garage at 10am to wait in line
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