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I am doing this job on my Passat W8 (same suspension as the C5 A6) and want to advise everyone that the VAS6085 a.k.a. KLANN KL-0250-40 does NOT fit the cars with aluminum uprights. This tool will NOT fit the C5 but only the B5 with steel uprights. Ask me how I know... I wasted money buying the tool only to find out it doesn't fit.
For anyone that is reading this far in this thread, I will relay my experience. I was replacing my shocks and upper control arms. On the driver's side, I sprayed it with penetrating oil and left it for a week. BTW, WD-40 is not a penetrating oil. Spend a few dollars on real stuff. Anyway, the breaker bar nudged it, so then I put my air gun on it, and it took a while but it loosened up and came out without any problems.
The problem with things first working is that they don't warn you for later.
On the passenger side, I did not spray penetrating oil, nor did I put the air hammer on because it was more stuck. I just kept pushing with the breaker bar and the head snapped off. Doh! Then I did my google search and realized how lucky I was the first time, and that life now sucks in a big bad way.
Some mechanics have suggested using a torch. But here's the thing with me... I know that if I don't use a flame, my house won't burn down. There are enough flammables in there, including penetrating oil, that I did not want a relatively minor problem to become a burned down house. So I decided to stick with the non-flame approach. I have a butane torch, and I use it in plumbing repairs, but I'm old enough to know when to say when.
I had a metal drill bit, so I started drilling. Note... use a center punch to provide a dent dead center so that the drill bit starts in the middle of the bolt. That worked for a little while but I had not removed the knuckle from the car so it was difficult to keep oil on it. I then bought the Ingersol Rand air hammer... the one for $49. It is pretty bad *** compared to the kit one I had.
I also googled the best penetrating oil and I ended up trying the half and half of acetone and ATF fluid. I sprayed in there 3 times before continuing. I still had the nut on the other end, which one poster said could be used to pull the bolt out, but it was my lifeline and was not moving much. So what I did next was to let rip on the air hammer on one end, and turn the wrench on the bolt on the other end. This actually started to work! One important thing to note here... I hammered a large screwdriver into the each of the 2 slots that allows the upper control arm to actually pinch on the control arm connectors. My theory was that if this is not done, then using the nut to pull on the bolt would only cause the metal to pinch on itself, and would tighten everything and make life worse.
That continued until the end of the threads at which 2 things happened.... tightening the nut did nothing, and the pointy air hammer attachment, which is wider than the hole, got jammed.
The solution to these new problems was 1) to get large washers to provide space for the nut to continue to pull, and 2) to get out my angle grinder and reduce the diameter of the air hammer tool so that it would fit in the hole. This took a while, but you want to make sure the diameter is small enough to fit in the hole. If it's just a TINY bit too large, then it gets stuck in the hole. Ask me how I know. BTW, the solution to as stuck pointy air hammer attachment is to disconnect the tool, put the snake-tongue attachment in the air hammer, and push it back out using the ring collar as something to push on. Just go nuts with the angle grinder and make it small enough. Also, though I just held the tool with one hand while the other held the angle grinder, you can also put the air tool attachment into a drill and slowly turn it while angle grinding, which would likely keep the reduced amount constant all the way around. BTW, to manually file that down would probably take a day. A lot of metal had to go.
I kept doing this process... tighten the nut while air hammering the other end.
This worked until the end that was coming out started to bump up against the upper control arm. At this point, I got out my hack saw and started cutting off about a half inch section at a time. Not too much or there are no threads left to tighten on.
This process was repeated until the bolt could finally be pushed out.
It took hours. It was miserable. My back hurt.
However, I should point out one more thing... When I did the driver's side, that upper control arm was really jammed in the steering knuckle, and took a lot of force with a ball joint separator to get it out. So I was thinking to myself: Well, even if I only get the bolt part way out, that's ok because that upper control arm is not going to pop out. Imagine my surprise then when, just after the bolt had been moved past the ball joint, that the dang thing just popped out all by itself. Between all the penetrating oil, time, and shaking from the air hammer, it was ready to pop. On the plus side, I had got the thing moving. On the minus side, I had no idea if it would be successful, or if the bolt threads would get stripped and I'd be in a world of hurt. Especially since I now had no way of driving anywhere to get more stuff. But things moved progressively faster and faster until only the air hammer was needed.
I did all of this with the knuckle still in the car. I did not want to take it out and then be in real trouble. So in summary:
- If you have not yet snapped the bolt head off, try to use a good air wrench. The torque of a breaker bar is just too much for that bolt, but an air wrench might do the trick. I have one rated at 600 ft pounds but probably does about what 200 ft pounds does on a breaker bar.
- the threads on the bolt are your friend. protect them. I did wreck the last 2 threads early on, but luckly I just cut those off with a hack saw and continued.
- drilling too far in the wrong direction can cause the drill to go into the aluminum of the steering knuckle, which is very undesirable. Just drill enough that the air hammer stays in the shaft and doesn't bounce around the end of the steering knuckle, and provides the convex shape (from the drill bit point) to keep the air hammer attachment centered in the hole.
- use screwdrivers in the slots to keep them from self-tightening on the thing you want to loosen.
- Figure on a few hours of this. I don't want to admit how long it took me, because I didn't think of the angle grinder trick until much later in the process, but that's the thing that really allowed the tool to do all the work.
Side note... I did drop by the Audi dealership and asked if they can get it out. He said yes, of course. I asked how much. His reply was, "sometimes an hour... sometimes all day". I got back in my car and drove away.
Well, my solution turned out to be a simple one, I completely ignored that pinch bolt and left it alone. I was changing struts and found that with the sway bar detached from the lower control arm and a friend to pull down on the suspension that I was able to get the lower mount of the strut to just clear the CV joint (you have to push the boot aside) by about 1/4" and the strut came out.
What size drill bit will drill this thing out? And what kind of metal?
I used a center punch on the bolt, and started with a small bit, working my way up to something just smaller than the bolt diameter. Get a couple of good quality metal bits. Makes a huge difference. Don't try to use horror freight bits. They are more for wood than metal.
My experience has been that once you go one or two sizes up in drilling them, that the bolt will come out with light tapping.
1. Place front of the car on jack stands
2. Remove sway bar links and sway bar
3. Jack up suspension
4. Removal should be as easy as this. Check 3:50 time of the video below.
I used a center punch on the bolt, and started with a small bit, working my way up to something just smaller than the bolt diameter. Get a couple of good quality metal bits. Makes a huge difference. Don't try to use horror freight bits. They are more for wood than metal.
My experience has been that once you go one or two sizes up in drilling them, that the bolt will come out with light tapping.
+1 on HF stuff. Almost all their stuff is for infrequent and light use. FWIW, when I had to drill out the pinch bolt on my C5, I used my neighbors bits. He does metal fab in his garage and works with hardened steel, so had bit specifically designed for high SAE grades and whereby the HB drill broke within 30 seconds, his worked like butter....hardened butter, but still better than anything I had before.
10-17-2016, 12:26 PM
