Broken crankshaft bolt

[mckrishes]

Hello. Got a 1999 civic lx with a broken crankshaft bolt. I need some advice on this. I am pretty sure I don’t wanna do this myself since I am not very experienced with drilling out bolts. What are your recommendations? Who would be the best person to take it to?
What is the best way to remove it? Thanks for your help.

Topic

[Drew Propes]

I’d center punch it, drill it, then EZ Out. A skilled mechanic should be able to do that, or use their own approach.

[mckrishes]

I was thinking of drilling and using the ez out, but my only concern was if it got messed up, then I would make a bad situation worse. I was wondering if it would be worth using some jb weld or something to put a nut on there and then using the nut to try and get it out. Anyone have success with this?

[Mike]

JB Weld won’t take the strain. It’s weaker than the metal of the bolt, which already broke under load.

Did the bolt head come off the bolt entirely, allowing you to remove the vibration damper? If so, it’ll be easier to work on with the damper removed.

[mckrishes]

Yes, the head and damper came off and the only thing that’s left is the shaft. I got the problem solved. I was fortunate. I sprayed some penetrating oil in there and then followed it up with some wd-40 last night. This afternoon I was able to just use my fingers and remove it by hand. I was very thankful. I had read on some other honda forums where the pressure is released if the head of the bolt comes off. It makes sense and that applied to my case. Big relief. I did not attempt to drill it first because I knew that any mistakes would cause irreversible damage and or make extraction worse. I did the above method first and was successful, thankfully.

[Alexander B]

[quote=”mckrishes” post=180754]the pressure is released if the head of the bolt comes off[/quote]
Very true, though only if you didn’t break the head off due to the thread being stuck (rust). and thread locking compound could be an issue too.

Dry bolts that snapped due to over-torque can 99/100 be twisted right out by hand because no more head = no more clamping force = no more friction.

[Author]

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