[s-cars] Stuck Lug Bolts

[Brett Dikeman]

On Oct 3, 2006, at 2:10 PM, Abe Berman wrote:

> On my "new to me" 96 A4 I've got a couple of lug bolts that are not
> coming off either with impact wrench or breaker bar + cheater.

Take the car to a tire shop and have the tires rotated? :-)

Is the supply line to the impact wrench too thin an ID?  This can  
have a major impact (har har) on performance of the gun.  I've also  
found that extensions introduce a fair bit of play and seriously  
hamper a gun's effectiveness.

Using ANY extensions on the breaker bar?  That will dramatically cut  
the amount of applied torque and increase the chances of stripping  
the bolt or shearing it; use a piece of wood and a floor-jack to  
support the head of the bar and you will gain a huge amount of torque.

>   I have
> soaked them in Kroil and PB Blaster as well.  Unfortunately, one of
> the lug bolts is starting to strip now from my efforts.

I've heard of people welding sockets onto bolts, but that's not  
possible in most modern wheels where the bolt head is inside the  
wheel.  It'd work great if you had panasports, though!

Faced with this task, I'd be tempted to 'MacGuyver' it:

-Clean both the socket and bolt best you can of rust and oil
-get some 2-part putty epoxy
-put the epoxy inside a socket that is 1-2mm too big (ie, press it  
onto the walls)
-press/hammer it onto the bolt all the way
-clean out the epoxy from the drive hole (where it'll hopefully get  
pushed out)

With any luck, even if the epoxy doesn't stick to the bolt, it will  
form a perfect socket to grab the bolt..and the putty epoxy usually  
isn't as brittle as the gel-tube stuff (I think) so it MIGHT survive  
the impact wrench.

> My next thought after soaking repeatedly with Kroil over the next
> couple of days is to try applying heat from a torch, but I am nervous
> about the clear coat on the wheels.

Wheels are designed to get pretty damn hot, several hundred degrees  
at least...but...you mean heat the hub to expand the hole?  If you  
want to get the hub hot, drive around the block with the e-brake on.

   You can also chill the bolt to multiply the effect; ice cubes,  
piece of dry ice (careful, causes frostbite extremely easily), etc.   
There's also a spray called Freezeit-2000 (best product name ever!)  
used for chilling electronic components on a PCB to verify thermal  
problems.

Another suggestion- alternate kroil with brake cleaner, and use an  
air gun.  If Kroil is like PB Blaster, it'll dissolve rust.  The  
brake cleaner will flush out dissolved stuff and let more kroil wick  
in.  If you need to chemically dissolve the rust, another option is  
POR15's Metal Ready, but it probably doesn't wick well enough for  
your purposes.

Best prevention for your problem is to wire-brush both the lugs and  
holes in the hub, clean them thoroughly, apply a very light coating  
of rust shield like Boeshield, let the Boeshield dry, and assemble.   
Make sure to torque the lugs properly and re-check at least once  
after a short drive; having clean mating surfaces between hub, rotor  
and wheel also reduce how much the wheel needs to "settle".  I apply  
anti-seize only around the hubcentric collar area, where the stock  
rims LOVE to weld themselves to the wheel.  Boeshield goes between  
wheel/rotor and rotor/hub, after wire-brush cleaning.

Brett