Essenar83

Okay so today I was going to try to work on my brakes, because the pads are worn down. I bought some pads, brake greese and got started.

After loosening the lugnuts and lifting the car, I removed the wheel. After removing the wheel I noticed the caliper bolts were in pretty solid.

I sprayed them with a lot of WD40 and let it sit. I repeated that a few times. The top one came off after some work, but the bottom one will just NOT come out. I tried vice grips, I tried adjustable STEEL wrench, I tried 12mm ratchet socket and it literally BROKE the socket piece in half.

The bolt just WON'T come out. Finally I decided, I need some real power for this. I went to Wal Mart and picked up a drill/bit set and bought this bolt extractor kit for drills. You basically drill an inch deep into the center of a bolt, hammer in this piece with reversed thread, and when the piece is in pretty deep, you try to unbolt it out.

The steel piece I drilled into the bolt literally snapped in half.

I'm ****** perplexed what to do. I know I'm gonna have to take it to a shop to get the bolts removed with air tools, but what if I come across more bolts like that when I'm pulling out my SOHC motor?

What's a reliable way of removing bolts like that? I got really frustrated after the work it takes, and I really don't want to NEED air tools to get my swap done, since almost everyone has done it with just hand tools and a torque wrench.

v4lu3s

I a curious why you needed to remove both bolts from teh caliper when replacing the pads?

Essenar83

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by v4lu3s &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I a curious why you needed to remove both bolts from teh caliper when replacing the pads?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Even if I could change the pads without removing both bolts, I can't remove the bolt on the damn brake line either.

lilnuke

Couple of things:

1. WD-40 is not penetrating fluid, is is more of a lubricant/water displacer. Use a penetrating oil instead, like Screwloose or PB Blaster.

2. Sometimes tapping (or hitting) the bolt head with a hammer will help to loosen the corrosion and dirt that is holding the bolt.

3. You could use heat (propane torch) on the caliper and then try to turn the bolt out. The idea here is to heat the area around the bolt and make the metal expand and release its hold on the bolt.

DC4_MADMAN

40.00 electric impact off of ebay. 240 ft lbs of torque, plenty enough for suspension, etc, I use mine all time.

powerfulperformance

iTrader: (1)

Next time what u should do is Drive the car around before u do the brakes. It will heat up the bolts and this makes it easier to remove. If its the hub from a civic i would just pick one up. People are basically throwing those away when they do gsr or itr brake upgrades....

Essenar83

Eh, apples to oranges.

Car's on jackstands working on swap now. I'll worry about the brakes when the GSR motor is in and I'm done installing the axles lol.

I found out about Liquid Wrench though and that's what i've been using. Good stuff, it actually works. Sounds like something you'd see late at night on an infomercial.

Eddiebx

i dont see why u are trying to use a bolt extractor on a bolt thats not stripped yet, sounds like u just need a set of stronger sockets and some muscle. theres nothing an impact socket and a nice long breaker bar cant take off. well alomst nothing, heh