casper980

iTrader: (6)

The bolt get stuck in the bushing is what happens, spins but wont come out, so if you keep spinning it, you end up pushing the nut through the cage that holds it in the subframe.

jgrotkier

iTrader: (1)

Sorry to bring up an old-ish thread, but I'm having this exact problem. My question is, what direction did you cut open the subframe from to access the nut? I can't really make it out in those pictures. Should I be cutting from the bottom or the side of the subframe?

Thanks!

jgrotkier

iTrader: (1)

No one wants to re-visit this thread?

Locdizzel

iTrader: (14)

kinda related, but is this the same bolt related to installing these lower control arm braces? im sure mine is stuck as well we had trouble getting the bolt loose and i might just try cutting the ends of the brace and slip it on

timmiii

iTrader: (3)

Wow I thought i was nuts but my PLCA bolt is stuck. I applied 540 ft-lbs and it still only moved a little. I think mine was due to a combination of rust and pot holes...

Piro Fyre

iTrader: (23)

Oh great, I think I need an angle grinder now... Yes, I have the same problem. I still remember how it happened too. Went to Wal-Mart and sat in my car for a few min then BANG. Never knew what happened that day until I went to get new tires put on... Before it happened, there was a lot of creeking, like that noise you get when opening/closing an un-lubed door. Only happened when steering left or right. The noise stopped after the bang though.

timmiii

iTrader: (3)

For those of you that have this particular problem and not too clear on what's going on. I have taken some pictures to illustrate the exact scenarios that is happening when you try to remove the LCA bolt but either it spins or just moves the LCA arm itself without getting any looser.




What's missing in this picture????


This thing!!!

What's that? The "cage" that holds the nut in place so the LCA bolt can thread into and hold the LCA onto the subframe. As you can see it's easy for it to break off over time if you're too rough with it.


To really get in there you have to cut it open



This may be it for some people but not for me. My Evo is special!


That's the bolt that was seized to the metal sleeve inside the bushing. As a result of trying very hard to get it out I ended up doing this...


I hope these pics help anyone that's experiencing this issue right now. It's not hard to fix but it takes a ****load of time and a lot of determination.

Liqquid

thanks for the pics, I thought removing the whole subframe might be the best way to go for this.. (mine are seized in very bad and I got lucky enough to NOT have them spin the nut loose, because the bolt didn't move at all) I was thinking about attempting it again this winter, I'm figuring it was rough getting that out, what all did you remove to do it?

timmiii

iTrader: (3)

In your case try to get the car on a lift with at least 6 or 7 feet of room underneath the car then get a 19mm 1/2" socket and a breaker bar then get a 5foot long pipe if not a 1000+lb-ft impact wrench. Make sure the pipe doesn't deflect. Leave the subframe in place unless you absolutely are sure that you'll be ordering a new one. I had to cut mine open from the welds as you can see from the picture but that's because the cage for the nut broke off and I had no other choice but to open it and find something to hold the nut so i could get the bolt out.

When I had my subframe still bolted to my car (the car is on jack stands right now), i had the engine out and then I applied my full body weight (185lbs) to the end of a 5ft long pipe and my conventional socket wrench with a 19mm socket. I even jumped on it and it didn't really move until a few more tries later. Just standing on the pipe wasn't enough even though it was around 900lb-ft of torque being applied, however the pipe i was using was deflecting so it was probably around 750ft-lbs of torque. I was literally bouncing up and down like a spring board until the bolt finally broke lose.

I think what really happened was that the rubber holding the metal sleeve inside the bushing ripped and allowed the sleeve to rotate freely. No amount of PB blaster helped because the metal was just seized together. The PB blaster simply could not penetrate and was absorbed by everything else but the corrosion between the bolt and metal bushing sleeve.

Note: to calculate the amount of torque you will apply to the bolt just do W weight / F force x length of the pipe. Ex: T_torque = W_weight*L_pipe this will give you a rough estimate as to how much torque you are applying if standing on the pipe, assuming you stand at the end of the pipe.

Hope this will help you.

timmiii

iTrader: (3)

Anybody have the part number for this bolt?

evo3gsx

iTrader: (20)

Well, I unfortunately ran into this issue today. Broke the cage holding the nut and now the bolt just spins freely. For those that ran into this problem, what did you use to cut open the subframe and did you replace the subframe after? This really freaking blows... I wish I would have seen this thread before I decided to do the Whiteline RCA kit.

casper980

iTrader: (6)

No, need to replace the subframe, just need to make sure you weld it back up nicely. I didn't do the work, my mechanic did, he just used a air compressor cutting wheel to cut 3 sides of a square, and bent the piece out of the subframe so he could access the cage/nut. He did this twice to my car, read earlier posts. The first time he replaced the cage, the last time he welded the nut to the subframe. I suggest doing this the first time to avoid cutting the frame back open. I would also look into coated bolts that were mentioned in an earlier post, I will be if I have this problem again. Good Luck

evo3gsx

iTrader: (20)

Good call, and thanks for the input. I got the subframe removed today and will be dropping it off at a local shop to have them cut open/reweld the subframe. But I guess on the brightside, I can do the front swaybar and steering precision kit. haha.

eric6

iTrader: (4)

This happened to me. The bolt actually did not break the cage or the nut, but I broke the bolt off. The bolt had SEIZED to the inside of the bushing which wouldn't allow the bolt to come out, and it eventually broke from me torqueing on it.

Part number for bolt would be appreciated, I can't find it on the EPC.

heel2toe

iTrader: (41)

I spent this past weekend working on the car replacing bushings. Unfortunately I was unable to R&R my front LCAs due to the notorious bolt. I gave up and brought it to my alignment guy. I figured let the professional with a lift handle it.

Well, he was unsuccessful as well. I mentioned that I had read about this issue and that people were cutting open the subframe to remove it. So he cut it open and was able to remove the nut. Unfortunately, even with the nut off he was not able to get the bolt off as it has seized to the sleeve of the bushing and is now spinning. He tried using a pry bar as well as an air chisel but unfortunately could not free the bolt from the sleeve.

I was given my options, put it back together and call it a day, cut off the lca and then remove the bolt that way, or cut up the subframe and replace that.

Since I was not prepared to loose my car for a couple of days we choose to put it back together for now. Ive since sourced a set of LCAs and the current gameplan is to cut out the old ones and replace them with the spares.

Im sure that plan will work however I hate to cut up perfectly good control arms for nothing. I've got about a week until my new arms will come in the mail so that gives me some time to figure out a more clever way of removing my old control arms.

For anyone that had the bolt seize to the bushing, how did you free the bolt from the sleeve?