Quote:
Originally Posted by Davee
BMW X5 E53 3.0
I needed to replace my thrust strut bushing this weekend. however have run into a problem. Got the thrust arm an balljoint out while undoing managed to snap off the bolt that hold the ball joint to the knuckle. To make it worst snapped one bolt in each knuckle.
Drilled a hole through the bolt to use an ezy-out but now concern that the bolt must be torqued tight therefore the ezy-out might snap as well.
What are my options:
Give it a go - and hope the bold comes out.
Remove the whole knuckle and drive shaft and take to a machine shop to get the bold out.
Get a second hand knuckle.
Any ideas would be appericated.... what a pain
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Davee, I feel your pain. You seem quite knowledgeable in diy stuff. I think the easy-out is the first step you can try.
If it's not too late, I suggest you buy a drill bit that is left hand drive (not sure of the good name) to drill your bolt. It's a drill bit that requires the handrill to turn left to work. Doing so, the vibration of the drilling + heat + left hand side torque is often suffisent to loosen the broken bolt. If not, then you can try with the ez-out. A drilled bolt will have less radial force applied to its treads and should be easier to extract.
You can also try to apply some heat with a MPS gas torch if there is nothing critical in the way.
Working on a bech with a drill press is recommended if it's not too much work to remove the suspension arm.
Hope this helps.