Hello everyone! I had a bit of a problem last night while replacing my rear shocks with new Billstein equivalents. I somehow managed to snap one of the main support bolts at the top of the shock absorber. These are the two primary bolts that hold the top of the shock and I sheared one of them completely in half. There are not enough threads there to put on a new nut so my shock is installed with only one nut at the moment. I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions? I am not going to drive the car until I get this sorted out. Any help would be much appreciated. Right now it is between drilling out the old bolt and installing a new one. Or welding the old bolt back together. But I am sure there are some better ideas out there. Thank you!

 

your best bet is to take out the back seat. drill out the old bolt and replace it. Tack weld the new stud in place and reinstall the seats. That's your best, quick and easiest way.


Good Luck,
The Dr!

 

Dr. thank you for the advice! I did end up drilling a new hole and installing a new bolt. The car was doing great, but I still have a squeak in the rear suspension after replacing the shocks. It is still on the drivers side and only really happens when I am going around a corner and hit a bump or there is weight transfer. Would you or anyone know if maybe I need to replace my control arm too?

 

Alex, look at the sway bar mounts. It is possible that the mounts are getting a little loose and it is causing the noise. Granted, if you have been back in that corner, you may also have loosened up the brake cable and that is bouncing a little, causing the noises that you are hearing.

 

Thermo-Thank you for the advice my bushings were pretty worn. But I still have a squeak. I have been able to pin point it to a cross member that is attached near the shock absorber. I am not sure if it is a lower control arm for the rear drivers side. Have you heard of anything like this before. I am going to check the tech manual and also look for the part online.

 

Alex, I am not sure what arm you are talking about. If you can, take a picture of what you are talking about and photoshop an arrow into the picture to show where the problem joint is. A lot of parts on the rear suspension can be easily replaced. Normally, people have problems with the 2 arms (on each side, one is on the bottom and nearest the front tire with the other being the one top center of the rear suspension) that run from the subframe to the spindle. These run about $100 each and take about an hour to replace taking your time.

 

Alex: When you recently replaced the OEM bolt securing the top of the rear shock absorber, did you note the size & thread pitch? EPC shows an 8M nut but doesn’t say if the thread pitch is 1.0 or 1.25. The nut is part # C2S16516 or C2S45276.

I also need to replace my rear shocks, and beforehand, hope to clean the threads on these rusty bolts by carefully working a new nut up and down with a dollop of grease. But I need to know if it's an 8M 1.0 pitch or 8M 1.25 pitch thread.

Thanks for your help.

 

I ran into a similar problem with the rear shock top bolts... but its the nut that I can't get off the stud - tried bolt/nut extractors but they just rounded the nut even further and now there's hardly any nut at all. What to do? no clearance for my dremel to cut off what's left. PB didn't loosen it. Torch didn't loosen it. Any ideas? Thought about a nut splitter but these nuts are flared and not sure if I have clearance for that to work. need help before I quit and have to pay someone...

 

I ended up getting a nut splitter which of course could not fit in the small space... I also got some chisels - that helped a bit - but ultimately - had to drill the nut till it snapped off - so one side done - now the other side has the shock eye/collar spinning with the bolt - will probably have to cut the bolt out - any suggestions? what size bolt is a good replacement? do I need a special cutting blade for my dremel or sawzall to hack out the collar and bolt?