I was installing my new Berk test pipe tonight and ran into a little snag. It turns out on of the bolts that attaches the cat to the exhaust is stripped pretty bad. Before I tried to take the bolt off I soaked the bolts in PB Blaster but to no avail. As soon I put any force on my wrench it slipped immediatly. Im either thinking of buying or borrowing a dremel tool, buying vice grips or since I am going to Direct Tire tomorow I may ask them if they can get it off. Anyone else have any ideas, im leaning towards the dremel idea but I am worried that it may be difficult to get to the bolt on the very top if it is also completely corroded. Man I have no luck with this stuff.

 

hacksaw with a carbide blade...thats what i had to do on my old rsx since the bolts wers completely shot

 

I tried using my hack saw but I couldn't get the right angle on the bolt to cut it off.

 

just take it to a muffler shop.
i had the same problem and they took off my exhaust, put new studs, and put on my stock exhaust for cheap.

 

um....vicegrips. done deal

 

bolt out! would work in this situation i have a set here but you are too far for me too lend 'em too ya, anyway chech out your local sears

 

get a socket thats slightly to small (this can be done sometimes by finding an america socket thats slightly to small for a metric bolt), and hammer it on til it bottoms out. once the nut is off, it probably wont come out of the socket easily. I do this with my old sockets, never my newer ones.

 

Ok the bolt is off, I went downt he street to the gas station where I know the mechanic. He got the bolt off using an air chisel hammer. We got all three bolts off no problem and put the new ones that were included with my Berk kit on. I was going to get an inspection right after so I would be all set for a year with the test pipe. The problem was that when we started the car my CEL came on. We pulled the code and it was a P141 which is O2 sensor Bank 1 sensor 2. Does this mean somehow at that very moment my 02 sensor went bad? I think that it may be because we didn't fully tighten the top bolt on the cat so that I could get it off easily. I will say it again.... I have no luck.

 

um... seems like an air chisle would rattle the fvck out of the o2. Take it out and clean it and try it again, make it just shook carbon loose and semi clogged it. who knows.

 

I think what im gonna do is put the test pipe on tonight and clean off the 02 sensor and hope that it works. The guy at the shop was saying that im going to need a special tool to remove the 02 sensor, I know that its a 22 mm bolt but he said my 22 mm wrench won't work. Any truth to that?

 

i guess no one read my post....vice grips would have taken those bolts out in 3 seconds

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Mr. Nickels &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i guess no one read my post....vice grips would have taken those bolts out in 3 seconds</TD></TR></TABLE>

I have tried vise grips before and they do NOT work. I have even used a long pipe on the grip handle to get it extra tight and it will still slip off the nut. The proper way to resolve this is to drill out the stud from the back side and replace it with a new one, or a bolt.

The correct way to remove the bolt in the fist place is with a 6 pint impact socket and gun. Trying to remove it slowly does not help! Using renches and ratchets by hand often ends up stripping the bolt.

 

I did read your post and was going to try vice grips but I happened to stop by the mechanic down the street and he did it for next to nothing. I doubt the vice grips would have worked as the bolts were extremely corroded but hey ya never know!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Mr. Nickels &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i guess no one read my post....vice grips would have taken those bolts out in 3 seconds</TD></TR></TABLE>

Vice grips only work if the head of the bolt is stripped. Best of luck when the whole bolt is rested like in the OP's pics.

 

Either saw it off or take it to someone who can


/thread