I never saw anything like this, the nuts (or I Guess actually bolts) are falling apart. It just goes to show, that luck counts.

Anyone ever heard of this before? I can tell you if ever there was a way to make an easy job hard, this will do it.

I am going to spend hours on something that should take 10 mins. lol

Woe is me.

 

What do you mean by falling apart?

They're metal screws, how are they falling apart?

 

They are rusted to the point the are falling apart. The car itself isn't rusty, but in the northeast, they use salt and it is as if one day the car went through a salt puddle and the salt got up there and never left.

Just two in the middle front center, but they rusted so much they are round without any torque at all, it's just flaking and falling apart.

 

just hop down to lowes and get one of the things used to back out stripped bolts, and hope for the best.

 

Wow, so it sounds like the heads are rusted off and there's nothing left to get a torX bit into?

See, just a little bit more info really helps us understand what you're going thru and how to help you....

Soccerbummer's suggestion is a good place to start. Failing that it sounds like you need to drill the heads off, then when you get the cover off the rest of the screw should be easy to get a hold off and back out.

These aren't torqed in there very hard, if you can find a set of reverse drill bits, sometimes the screw will back right out as you're drilling the heads off.

 

Thanks for the good thoughts. It wasn't so much that I needed advice, it was just about how a 10 min job can go bad...much worse than I thought at first.

Getting it apart wasn't the worst of it. Various sized sockets and wrenches, a ball peen hammer, little lever (to get the bolts out of the socket) and lubricant did the trick. (Thank you John M [previous owner] for using anti-seize)

The bad part is waiting until Wednesday for the stupid bolts to get to mini. I thought they may stock them but I guess they don't work on older ones yet. I bet they will stock a set sooner or later. Only a couple are really bad, but I don't want to stick half assed bolts in to haunt me in the future. So, I will wait. I still get to ride over to mini, but not until next week.

So, it turns out a 10 minute job has turned into a five day marathon. I just wanted to B*tch to someone who might find it nice that for once it isn't them.

 

MINI bolts? Am I missing something?

http://www.mcmaster.com/ is where I would look for them and they have super fast shipping.

http://www.totallystainless.com/ is another option.

Bob

 

Thanks speedwing, I actually get good prices from a semi local mini dealer. They are ordered up with a 30 second phone call and it isn't really too far (though I can't use the mini to get there).

I will file these sites for the future. Usually I try to order things like this at my leisure so I can save a buck. When I am pissed, I just pay the man.

PS, some are not just bolts, but are studs also used to mount things along the engine.

 

Don't those have a retaining clip to keep them attached to the valve cover?

 

Not that I saw, there were inserts for the cover, but they all came out.

 

Two words....
Turbo Sockets.