Grrrrr....Stripped caliper carrier bolt. Options?

[Stu]

If any of you helped me do my brakes during the spring ZHP Mafia meet, then you would've heard the massive "BANG!" as the bolts finally released after we struggled for over an hour getting my passenger side caliper carrier bolts undone.

Well, I have been having rotor vibration on that specific rotor and I wanted to take off the rotor to see if my actual hub was bent or something. Today, I went to take it off and it was already a little rounded from the last time. No biggy, I figured I would just get it off, head to the dealership, get two new bolts, put some anti-seize on them and call it a day.

That didn't work out as planned.

Used a breaker bar, ended up stripping the bolt even more. Tried again, it refused to budge whatsoever. I can easily say that it will take over 200 ft/lbs of force to get this sucker undone. It's that rusted in there. I was able to get the other bolt off with about that much force, indicating that some serious corosion took place there. I cleaned up the bolt really well before putting it back in.

I tried a bunch of different ways, from a torch to cutting a slot in it to hammer it out with a flathead, to hammering a 15" socket onto it to using a 5/9" socket to vice grips. All of them just rounded the bolt more. That thing is in there, and I mean in there.

Aside from paying a professional to take it out, what are my options? It isn't a problem to have someone do it, but I want to have the most practical and cheap way. I imagine I will encounter stripped bolts more as I do more work on the car.

I saw a person who had this exact same problem with their caliper carrier, and used this:

http://www.irwin.com/tools/screw-bolt-extractors/bolt-extractors

And it worked like a charm with an impact gun (hopefully getting an electric one soon).

I will hopefully be obtaining one soon. This isn't a problem since, well, I just wanted to check the rotors and hub for bends, and I guess I am pretty positive that carrier isn't going anywhere any time soon.

What have you all done in the past when the traditional options have failed?

[Oli77]

Feel your pain.
You did not mention letting it soak 24hr with PB blaster. Have you tried that?

[danewilson77]

I vote for bolt Extractor and pneumatics.

Sent from Williamsburg, VA USA

[Stu]

Feel your pain.
You did not mention letting it soak 24hr with PB blaster. Have you tried that?

I'll admit, I dropped the ball on that one. I should've done that, though the bolt was so rounded to begin with that it probably would have stripped regardless. I'll be using anti-seize on my new bolts once I get them out again some day. For now, I'm 100% confident that they're not going anywhere.

[terraphantm]

Hmm, mine have been stuck pretty good, but I never came close to rounding them. Never used antiseize before either. If you can use an extractor that's the way to go. But iirc the brake hardware is made of a pretty high grade steel. I would see if maybe you can hammer on a slightly smaller bit (15mm or maybe a 19/32 if you have one)

In the future, I would only use a 6-point bit (spark plug sockets work great). Maybe even in conjunction with a wobble bit so that it can be seated perfectly.

[midlandtech]

you can always try putting a little heat on it to see if that helps. I have had good luck with that in the past

[zj96sc]

Easy to monday morning quarterback stuff like this but here are some pointers for you and for posterity:

- Put all your 12 point sockets away. Those things just create problems.

- Pb blaster and heat. You would be amazed at what pb blaster can do. I've soaked bolts and literally heard them pop loose without me even touching them. Heat and soak 24hrs. Start with propane or mapp and see if you get anywhere.

- Hammer a smaller socket on.

- extractor

- Last try o/a - I'd avoid this though because of the heat cycle impact on the metal you're keeping.

You can also try just drilling the bolt out but you run a high risk of damaging the threads.

Between hammering a 6pt socket on, pb blaster, and heat cycling I was able to free 4 of the most stubborn bolts I've ever encountered on my truck's up-pipes. Think 180,000 miles of 1300F cycles.

Lastly make sure you use a sparing smidge of high temp anti-sieze on reassembly and ensure you torque to the proper value.

Hope this helps -