Anti roll bar bushes and fragile bolts!

[Cookies]

Hi all,

I decided to replace the anti roll bar bushes yesterday and really wish i hadn't. Had a look and it seemed straight forward enough - passenger's side - 2 nuts to remove fore and aft of the bush - driver's side - one nut and one bolt holding the little braket.

Passenger's side was ok apart from a siezed nut which had to be cut off - time consuming but not too problematic - the driver's side was a horse of a completely different colour.

Managed to get the nut off without any bother at all (too good to be true i thought) then tried to remove the bolt - very tight and required plenty of penetrating oil - tightened and untightened to get the oil onto the threads and it started to free up, started gently undoing it and then came to another tight spot - same again with the oil, let it sit for a while and tried again.

Yip, you guessed - the head of the bolt came off, leaving about 5mm of a sheared bolt protruding from the chassis. Not really surprised as it is probably the first time they ere aken off in 8 years!

Not too worried about it, i'll throw it in to my mechanic and get him to work his magic on it.

Suppose that's what you get for trying to save a few quid!!

Cooks

[teamster1975]

Crikey, what a bummer! It's always when you think a bolt is nearly free that it decides to shear on you!
You can get stud extractors that clamp on the shank of the bolt as you undo them; I had to resort to this when I swapped the engine out on my bike, front bolt had been cut on the replacement lump and they'd thoughtfully left about 1/2 inch of shank sticking out

[Welly]

Wait till you see the rear passenger side bracket, the tank has to be lowered

I suppose we should go about maintenance-spraying all our threads to protect them from time to time, in an ideal world

[Cookies]

Thanks for the replies lads.

Bummer is right, although the passenger side is done and all without touching the tank!! The anti roll bar on my '6 runs along above and to the rear of the tank and i didn't have to touch the tank to remove the bracket - i must throw a couple of pics on when i get a chance!! Welly - would you mind doing the same at some stage as i'd be interested to see the difference between our motors!

I sprayed both sides several times during the week before tackling it on Saturday, but i know what you mean - we should periodically remove the nuts and bolts and clean/lubricate them

Cooks

[teamster1975]

Wait till you see the rear passenger side bracket, the tank has to be lowered

Shoorly you mean off-side Welly!
It's not as bad as it sounds cooks, I detached the filler hose & the breathers if memory serves.

[Welly]

Welly - would you mind doing the same at some stage as i'd be interested to see the difference between our motors!

Sorry Cooks but I don't have a 406 now

I forgot that it is indeed the rear offside a/r/b mount bracket that clashes with the tank. I thought D8 and 9's were the same in this respect

[richteex]

Yep, exactly same happended to me when i removed the drivers side rear antiroll bar bushes. Bolt sheared of and it was a trip down to the local garage to sort. I didnt need to lower the tank on mine just remove the filler. Nice and easy lol

[Welly]

I suppose you just have to be super dooper carefull not to get 'bits' in the tank

[Cookies]

It's good to know that i'm not alone in doing things like this!!!!

I have both sides done (bar replacing the damaged bolt) and never actually had to remove filler / tank at all. Must be several different routes for the filler going into the tank Welly.(?)

BTW Welly - I was looking at the Volvo V50 diesel (several different models and engines) to replace the 407 as i need something with a more practical load area - nice car - how do you like yours? It's an s40 isn't it? Haven't driven any yet but hopefully get a spin at the weekend. The D5 is tempting!

Cooks