babzog

Hey folks,

I was trying to change out my rear struts today, following Mex's fine article, and got halfway through the job (left side strut replaced, now starting on the right side strut) when I got stuck.

The lower bolt on the right side strut is stuck. I mean, stuck fast and firm!
The issue is the same as this one. The bolt in question is the one that goes through the eye on the bottom of the strut.

The problem with it is that it's stuck fast to the metal bushing in the eye (at the bottom of the strut) - when I hit it with the impact, it rotates maybe 1/16 to 1/8 (so I know the threads aren't siezed) and freezes. Back and forth... no dice. Breaker bar... no dice either (but it's hard to reef on it without the benefit of a hoist and the resulting free space).

Any thoughts on getting this sucker freed up so I can remove it? I'd hate to have to take it to a shop for one misbehaving bolt.

joe6680

Same happened to me, not a lot of room in there either. Problem is its in a rubber grommet as well so it tends to turn back in. I used a breaker bar and it eventually released, but it prob took me 1.5hrs to do it. Use a product called liquid wrench, saturate it and let it soak in. Just keep at it and it'll eventually free up.

ShawnSmarter

use pb blaster. works wonders. Use a torch too. if your re-using the strut be careful not to torch the bushing. Same happened to mine and I ended up popping off the welded nut and air hammering it out. pain in the ***

babzog

Yeah, it is a PITA. I'll have to pop in to town and see what they have.

babzog

Alright! Went to CT Boutique (Canadian Tire) and picked up some PB Blaster and an IR impact wrench (a 2100G - the strongest in the store at 550 ft.lbs). Neither of those did the trick:



This didn't do the trick either:



Yes, that's a 5' steel pipe. It just ended up rotating the bolt/bushing inside the rubber eye, which did nothing to free it up. Eventually, I sorta gave up and started fixing a broken toy.

After resigning myself to having a local shop do the bolt extract-grease-reinstall job, my brother in law popped by. He runs a local motorcycle shop and so he took a look. He left and came back with a few tools including a better version of the IR wrench (2135Ti). While I adapted his wrench to my air hose fitting, he heated the bolt with my map gas torch, then hit it bigtime with the PB Blaster and finally worked it loose with some IR double-hammer persuasion!

The trick he said, was to heat the ends of the bolt (since that's all there was to work with). "Heat is your friend", he said. I'd tried heating it last night but I was not focusing on the ends of the bolt itself and I didn't heat it long enough.

joe6680

Glad you got it off. I hope you greased the bolt when you put the new ones on...

youngjosh12

Yeah, wished I had read this sooner, heat is superrr helpful. Both of my sway bar links were rusted on and they were broken, took a hot wrench (not actually a hot wrench but alot of heat) and got the bolts literallly red hot and put an air gun to them and they came right off. Glad you got it off!

babzog

Thanks guys! Yeah, I was quite happy to see that bugger come out! And yes, both bolts were well lubed before being reinstalled. I do not want to do that again (though I did return my Mastercrap air tool set when I found a great deal on a used IR 2135TiMAX [$125] - tired of wasting time and energy on crappy tools that don't work).

TK-421

Its nice to see you were able to get it out on your own. I ended up taking it to a tire shop to get both of them removed. They were able to remove the rear passenger strut bolt but they had to cut the rear driver side bolt of and stick in a new one. In the process the bushing was damaged and couldn't be reused. But long story short the new struts are in and the old ones on the floor in a friends garage.

westcali_playa

i have the same problem with the rear passenger side. it really sucks, im gonna try again tomorrow and maybe try the blow torch thing.

rjay808

Damm after searching forums of removing rear shocks now i know there could be a huge problem for me!!! I was going to install tein dropped springs on my 97 civic till i read all these forums that the bolts might be seized with the LCA. IDK if im gonna drop my car now...whats the best way to remove the bolt from the shock to the LCA??dammm lol i wanna drop my car soo bad and i dont want it to be outta commission because of a broken bolt!!

Aetoc

iTrader: (1)

I have the same issue and MindBomber was saying that if it won't come loose, your only option is to cut the head of the bolt off and knock the shock free, then undo the remaining bolt and replace it...I'm going to give the heat a try and if that doesn't work, I'm taking it to the shop where my buddy works and getting them to do it lol.

04 Honda Civic

iTrader: (2)

Heat helps ALOT. Oxy Acetylene is best.

Don Arnold

My 05 CRV had the same thing, I was able to turn the bolt, but it was rusted to the sleeve which had torn from the rubber when I turned the bolt. So I kept turning until the nut broke off the flange. Now there was room to get a saws-all in and cut the bolt on the nut end. Still would not drive out with a drift, so to saws-all the head end I had to block the car way up so the sawsall would not touch the floor, and was also forced to cut through the bushing as well , cuz there's just no way to get to the bolt by itself on the head end. No matter, the strut is junk as soon as the rubber tears anyway. Use a 24tooth per inch blade in a reciprocating saw. (saws-all)
Did one side in an hour (the preload is very low, I got by without a compressor). This side took all day!!(including the puzzlement and moaning)

HunterR37

Been Dreading this task of replacing both rear shock absorbers over the last few weeks here. Did My research, and things were not looking good according to all the threads of broken bolts. Seemed like about 9/10 Times the bolts broke, and usually on the gas tank side which makes hot work all the more difficult. Well yesterday I successfully replaced both rear shocks and all 4 Sway Bar Links on my 2009 EXL Coupe, without issue ! Over the last few weeks I have been periodically soaking the mounting hardware in penetrant and I'm convinced that was the key. Give your self some time ahead of replacing components if you live in salt/rust areas, soak your mounting hardware to your advantage!