thaimonkey

i broke the damn 14mm bolt on the bottom that holds the rear strut. anyone recomend a way to take it out and also whats the best way to take these bolts out without breaking them...i went to the dealer and bolt the one bolt for 12 bucks...any help would be great, thanks

SOHC4life 96

Is it still threaded into the self tapping nut on the other side of the strut or is it just broken off inside the lower control arm?

If it's still threaded in then you're going to have to have it proffessionaly removed or you could try drilling it out. But drilling it out would take forever and probably a 30 drill bits. If its just stuck in there broken, get something that fits into the hole and hammer it out.

thaimonkey

just the 14mm head broke off. the rest of teh bolt is still in there...im guess im screwed huh?. any sugestions on taking the other side out corectly?.

thaimonkey

so its going to have to be done professionally huh?

EG6Honda

no. I had 3 'seized' 14mm bolts when i did my suspension control arms. You need to borrow a drill, and buy titanium (strongest you can get) drill bits. I'd suggest getting help from somone too. (moral support). I had one seized bolt before and it cost $120 or something ridiculous to remove. So when i found more, i said no F*ing way I'm going to pay that again. I did it with my dad, taking turns, and we got the 3 bolts out in about a day. Start with a small bit, make sure you are dead center. Take your time and work your way up in size until the bolt is almost gone. I am not sure if the bolts we removed were threaded at the end, but we were able to knock the thing out with a hammer-head piece.


Maybe someone can elaborate better than I did.

-Paul

EG6Honda

when you put the new bolts in, make sure you lube them up with the correct grease so as to avoid any future problems like this again.

thaimonkey

im not sure that will work cause the bolt is threaded. not the whole bolt but enough. how would a professional shop take them out?

stoned_sol

i had the same problem with my del sol. i ended up just replaced the lower controll arms with a set of aluminum ones. i think you can get them now days for around $100. here is a pic of my del sol with them on.

litterbox

When I was working on my buddy's car the same thing happened. We couldn't get it out. So the car went to my other friend's shop and he got the LCA in a press in an attempt to save it. It got loose and the LCA snapped up hitting my buddy square in the mouth and knocking out his two front teeth!!!

I've got the same problem now on my rear lca endlink hole. The bolt snapped in there. This weekend I'll first be trying a screw extractor, if that doesn't work then I'll try and drill it out then re-tap it with a bigger sized bolt.

hondasport2000

I had the same problem a few weeks ago.

I removed the LCA and drilled out the bolt.....starting with a small bit and working my way up......once it's drilled some and some of the pressure is releaved, you should be able to hammer it out, or worse case scenerio, keep on drilling.

litterbox

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by hondasport2000 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I had the same problem a few weeks ago.

I removed the LCA and drilled out the bolt.....starting with a small bit and working my way up......once it's drilled some and some of the pressure is releaved, you should be able to hammer it out, or worse case scenerio, keep on drilling.</TD></TR></TABLE>Did you have to retap?

nergy

Here's what we do on our stock cars, works pretty good. Drill out a small hole in the center of the bolt (apporx. 1/4 the size of the bolt itself), then use a left hand drill bit about 1/2 the size of the bolt and spin it in there counter-clockwise. If all goes well, the bit should bite and will spin the bolt right out. If it is really siezed up you may not have such good luck, but this usually works well.

GoldBadge

I had to cut mine on either side of the LCA. I couldn't get it out and I was strapped for tmie (no honda dealer had an LCA or bushing) so I bought some aftermarket aluminum LCAs. They were around the same price as ones form the dealer anyway.

thaimonkey

where can i get a set of the aluminum lca like stones_sol has. im too lazy to mess around with the broken bolt.

92-LS-Civic

even if you decide to take out the whole lower control arm you will chance breaking more bolts. you are having the same trouble i had. I tried drilling and after the 4th drill bit i decide to just buy new lower control arms. You need to borrow a torch and warm the bolts up before going at it again, my pass. side came out like butter when i torched them first. go on ebay for some lower control arms, get like omni ones or something, they cost around 100$ for the pair but look bad *** when you get them on. good luck

thaimonkey

the bolts on the other side came out fine. its just the driverside giving me a headache. i do like the omni ones..them things are hot...how are the bushings on the ebay ones?. i hear they dont last that long