Ok, so i think im really in a jam here. while installing my TSW springs, i had the head snap off the front drivers side pinch bolt. Ive sprayed it daily with liquid wrench, i tried an easy out, i tried drilling it out, i tried applying heat with the easy out.

All ive managed to do is drill a hole 9/32" all the way through it( half way i got bigger, might've damaged the threads on the back side) and then break off a size 5 easy out in the side where the bolt head was.

any ideas? should i take the knuckle off and to a shop and pay them to take it out, or should i try and find a new steering knuckle(any clue where i could get one, or how much it would be?) I REALLY need help with this one guys...

 

The R56 steering knuckle has a hole straight through it and uses a bolt and nut. I don't know why you couldn't just do the same thing. A new steering knuckle should cost about $ 100.00 at a mini dealer.

 

I was going to try the bolt & nut idea, but the biggest bolt i could fit through after drilling was 1/4" and i didn't feel safe driving on that. stock, the R50 is a hole straight through, but the back half is threaded, i don't believe the front half is, but that's the bit that's stuck in.

I sent emails to my normal parts dealer and the local BMW dealership, ill call the mini dealership on my lunch today.

 

I dont understand...the pich bolt has a 10mm nut on it. Once removed, it pops out. Nothing is threaded. I just took mine out last night.

 

BUMP for same problem. Installing new struts today and managed to shear off the head of the pinch bolt on the driver's side. Other side was hard as Hades to get off but managed OK.

Considering that I was using a breaker bar and penetrating oil I'm not too confident of getting this thing out with a regular bolt extractor.

Any tips? Heat? Cold? (I have access to histofreeze spray used to remove skin lesions) Just try to drill the thing and use nut/bolt instead?

Geez, I wish the previous owner or his mechanic was as **** as me about using Never Seize!!

Tom

 

Ah...i misread which pinch bolt. I thought it was the steering column knuckle. Not the spindle. My buddy did the same thing. He is driving it with the bolt sheared off in it because its rusted in there and there is NO chance his will back out. The only other option is to get a replacement knuckle cause your not going to get it out...

 

Tell me about it!! I've stripped three bolt extractors and finally broke the tip of one deep inside the bolt. That's a real ***** to drill through so I turned the wheel and started drilling the other (front) end of the bolt. Then I broke off the tip of a bit. Several hours of work just trying to fix this screw up, very little progress. I would have been done with all 4 struts by now. I've had it for the night.

I'm going to do whatever it takes to drill through this thing. I've got a new strut and camber plate on the other side so I don't want to just leave it as is. I picked up a new bolt/nut so that I can just drill the threads out of the knuckle, eventually. Tonight I go to Sears to get whatever their very best bits are.

 

wow, seems like this is a decently common issue. and it always seems to be the drivers side. ive had a few pms about it, and i think we all ended up replacing the steering knuckle. I personally ended up with a new knuckle, ball joint, tie rod end, and ABS sensor. the tie rod was mostly my fault, stripped the allen head inside the threaded portion due to the nut gettign stuck on a real rusty spot. but back to the pinch bolt, atleast 3 of us have broken off the tips of easyouts inside. making drilling harder.

ps. if you look at the "good" pinch bolt from the other side, you can see it tapers a bit just after the head, i think this is is the reason they snap so easy.

 

Well, it is doable to save the steering knuckle but it is very time consuming. I used diamond bits (Harbor Freight, 20 bucks for like 50 bits in an assortment of sizes) and my dremel tools. Of course that boogered up the threads so I drilled it out and used a longer bolt with a nut.

It was a lot of hours of work but translated into getting the MINI off the stands and back in service a lot quicker than if I had to order the knuckle and change it all out.

 

luckily i have 2 mini dealers in my "area" boston and peabody. both about an hour drive. They both by chance had all the parts i needed in stock. once i figured out i was stuck, it was a quick changeover, although an expensive one.

 

what did everybody end up doing? same problem here :(

 

Drill. For hours.

 

Same happened to me installing FSD's. I got a cheap drill bit kit
from harbor freight and kept going one size up till the bolt was gone.
The hardest one was the first bit (smallest) thought the bolt. In the end
I killed about 8-10 bits, but they only cost me around $15. After that I
got a grade 8 nut/bolt with a nylock and all was good.

Good luck with your's

 

Yes, thats what I was thinking of doing. I've been watching some videos on youtube and seems like lubricating the drill bit with some oil may be faster. I'm just afraid that the same thing might happen again. Why did MINI do this on R53??????????? such a headache, I had everything ready to go, endlinks, sway bar and springs.

 

just had this happen to me, also driver side. HMM I i smell a defect somewhere, or somehow the driver side gets way over torqued at the factory.

 

Ok, I forgot to mention this earlier a few days after mine went bad. This is the process if the pinch bolt breaks on you. Wish I could've taken some pictures when I did mine but I did it all by myself so, didnt have time to do that.

1. tire off
2. break line and sensor off the strut
3. loosen completely off the front sway bar end link from the strut
4. loosen the tie rod completely off the knuckle by using a separator from harbor freight*
5. 3 bolts off the top of the strut
6. take the plastic cover off, is that called the splash guard? the one around the wheel.
7. now that everything is loosened, everything should move up and down freely.
8. push the whole strut assembly down as much as you can, its kinda complicated but it is possible, I mean I did it, this is the only way you can do it if you don't want to drill through the pinch bolt.
9. One way to do this possible is to use something like the tie rod separator to help you push down the cup (top of the strut) and pull it out.
10. take the cup off by using a 21mm socket, you need to use a special socket since you also need to use an allen wrench to loosen it, I have the set for sale for $40 shipped.
11. once the cup is off, just put everything back.

12. don't be afraid to drive around with the pinch bolt all broken, I was actually told at the dealer that there is no way that bolt is coming off. If in case it comes off you will be able to tell but the strut assembly is still "technically" pushed down by the sway bar endlink, in case it comes off then put another screw and bolt to tighten it.

If you have any questions then PM me, leave me your number and I can call you and explain over the phone. Like I said, I thought I was stuck buying a new knuckle, but one sunday morning I thought about doing this and it worked, now loving my TEIN S-TECH's.

 

true that it probably wont come off but i did coilovers so reusing the original carrier was not hapening.

 

same happened to me, i am a machinist ..so a Bridgeport and a solid carbide end mill did it for me ...hmm.... and it was the drivers side too

 

Installing FSDs on my R53, and bam! my pinch bolt head broke off on the passenger side. I sprayed WD-40 but didn't work.
I applied heat, but I think I didn't apply enough heat to the threaded area. It worked nicely on the driver side with heat on both sides, who knows, could be it was in better condition.

Anyway, its late and had to leave the mini on jack stands for the night...... :(

Going to drill out the threaded side and hammer out the non-threaded side, and get a longer bolt with nut. Hopefully it will work

Thanks for the posts

 

That is exactly what I ended up doing. It actually isn't bad and I like it better for the future.

Just a reminder, to drill metal, you keep the bit going slow, like 60 -80 rpm. Maybe a little water to keep it cool. Once tinsel starts forming, just keep it going. As soon as you overheat the bit, it loses temper, and is crap.

Slow wins this race.

 

Thanks for the Tip HRM, worked nicely.

Today I go for the rears. Anything to worry about in the rear? The bottom shock bolt maybe?

 

All good, FSDs are definitely an improvement

Thanks

 

bringing this one back from the dead. Same thing happened here on my '03. Went to take the drivers-side off and without much effort with the breaker bar, the head of the bolt sheared off. Yay. Tried to take the knuckle off so I could drill it out off the car, but the damn lower balljoint refuses to separate from the LCA. ...best part is getting any parts for this little nugget. Nearly everything is dealer only, and the mini dealers in this area are less than common to say the least.

 

Just keep whacking the SIDE of the ball joint with a hammer. You don't need a huge hammer, just getting the thing to vibrate will have the ball drop out. Once you get the right frequency it drops, so just hit it over and over, but don't start out with more force than just getting the thing to ring. I'm guessing I use the force it would take to move a 3 inch nail one inch into wood.