I just took out my pinch bolts. One took around 3 hours and the other side took less than 30 minutes like wow what a pain. Lucky with both of them

Yeah.. working on my 2007 A6. I bought the ECS air hammer bit.. Um, also a smaller air hammer, in hopes of it fitting up there. I am dubious about it's use on this vehicle. Many steel and aluminum interfaces had much oxide build up (I believe mostly of aluminum itself). The removing of bolt head, and stacking of washer/spacers method. seems the most promising, in my situation, as it's still on the car. I did order some class 10 coupling nuts for a larger thread area. I also ordered cheaper upper arms, should it fail, and require some hacking. I did chew up the bolt head a little already, with air hammer. I'd have to grind it to accept a wrench or socket again. What a fun fun repair. Thank you SO MUCH for your video! Even if I don't employ it, there's always the other side to try it on.

The longer i own an audi the more i want my old peugeot back again. Audi a4 avant.in one year.2 seized brake calipers rear.3 broken springs.2 wobbly belt pulleys.faulty radio screen.faulty coolant temp sensor. Peugeot 205 diesel.drove for 3 years.discs and pads and one wishbone.

Just did this exact process about five minutes ago, and it worked perfectly, thank you!

great techniques thanks.

As soon as as it moves out 1mm u need to put air on other side n send it back in. Just keep teasing it that way u less likely to snap bolt and risk having to drill. These things are fkin nightmares

Been on with this type for 2 hours today and still nowhere near. Uv done it properly and it was still stubborn no wonder iv struggled. Pray for me tomorrow ;)

i just did a wheel bearing on a 00 passat. that is the softest damn bolt i think ive ever seen. I back the nut off (as you would if you were to hammer on it. First smake of the nut knocked the threads off the bolt. I ended up getting the bolt to slide back and forth smoothly until it hit the damaged thread( at this point the bolt is mushed over) I cut the bad portion off and all it took was a few taps of the hammer on a quarter inch extention to get the remains out. A grade 8 bolt went back in.

I tried and failed for a long time with this bolt (using other methods than shown here). I then gave up and was able to replace the coil spring by loosening the arms at the top end. It was not easy but I’d have done this first if I knew the pinch bolt would be such a write off!

Holy moly guys PB Blaster

I need to replace "rubber" shock absorber bushings (L+R side) on mine. From your video i can see you managed to remove whole assembly off the vehicle, i wonder is it possible to "disconnect" the two upper control arms from top mounting plate while on vehicle?

Same story with the top bracket on a C5 allroad. Bolt snapped.

That's nut's, pardon the pun. You have to wonder why they wouldn't put a little goo on that before assembly to prevent this, and people will always question that extra time above flat rate even though you have two techs working on this - what should be a 5 second bolt removal.

i have anti seize on my bolts that i put back in and the thing slides out now every time i take it out every few years. ontario canada.

I did on mine with a longer bolt. Used a ton of oil, impact wrench and hammer. Later I took a huge impact hammer for construction and it didn't move. So i took a vise and set it so I could torque on lever real good. Fucking vise broke in two. Later i used a good drill bit, 2h of time and drill it out. Drill went sideways about 10 mm on end. Because aluminum is easier to drill than steel. So now i have one and a half hole. New hole and it still holds. All that was done on the car. it's pain and i have other side to do. Local mechanic said no, because it has air suspension.

how you do it if bolt snaps at head

god i am so happpy i have a 2000 a6 with steel upper i have never had an issue with pinch bolt and am in maryland, the rust area. just use steel pinch bolt and anti-seize

By far the best way to do this is blasting it with much heat.

Great design by audi still used today from the 1990's 🙄

Heating it with a butane torch would have helped. Also PB Blaster fluid works well on rusted or stubborn nuts and bolts.

Yeah just took me about 5 hours 3 cobalt drill bits full tin of fast release spray and a bottle of gas for the torch. I could hit it either side back n fourth with heat and turn it but it still wouldn't come out had to drill 😔 it is 02 plate and probably never been off.

Just doing this to mine. Both ends have sheared, air hammer doing nothing and so far I've drilled about 2 inches through 🤦‍♂️

Would a 1” milwaukee cordless impact remove this no problem?

I did it this way. Spray it with wd40 or what ever u like for days before u start a lot i mean a lot. Loosen the nut Use pray bar and socket - Start turning the bolt in both directions so it loosens up a bit spray wd40 do that again. Start turning anticlockwise it will feel like it will twist and snap and it may happen trust me thats what u need but not yet. It will start to screw itself out the supposed way. As soon as it does that stop. Move it on both directions just to make sure it is loosen up now. wd40 again Now carry on anticlockwise after a while if it wont come out the way it goes out it will heat up and start to twist and snap, great if u achieved it.JUST DONT twist it too much on side to side you want the bolt as straight as possible. Now remove the nut add a washer or two tighten it and carry on tightening and it will pull itself out slowly. Before u reach the point u are out of treads or the bolt is too far out remove the nut and add as maximum amount of washeres(or biger nuts) and start tightening again while u do that keep on spraying the wd40 just pour it in there well. Now try to twist it a bit the bolt should be as far out as it can go. stop If it twisting freely well u will know use angle grinder and take a bit of the bolt off till the nut. Try to tighten it again if it just spins around you are nearly there. Now using angle grinder cut off the nut but leave the rest of the bolt. Take off the washers or(bigger size nuts) and using angle grinder just make a flat spot on the bolt of just make it so it doesn't spin when u grab it with a pliers. Now take pliers or what ever u like and twist out the rest of the bolt. I HOPE THIS HELPS I spent 2 days drilling the bolt out because i was mad and twisted both ends off dont do that...

Lol I just gave up and bought a replacement from you guys.

Tomorrow my first wishbone replacement on my B8. Upper and lover arms. Been spraying WD40 for 4 day's 2 thimes. I'm hoping for a guardian angel tbh.

the fact that bolt head didn't break right off is crazy

Heat it with a torch then the air hammer

Good technique but I did not see you use any penetrating oil. Maybe you did. If you did not, it may have helped it go a bit faster. Also if you had a longer chisel fitting on your air hammer you may have been able to get square on top of the Nut/bolt end making that a more force full impact in the direction you want to move it. You got it done with our spending $500 on a special Audi tool. Good job and Good video.

why not heat with a torch first?

Dude Dynamite or Granade , Problem solved LOL.

Yeh its a right fuck on....and thats the hub off the car!!

You can leave it in the car. You need three tools. MAPP TORCH, PENETRATING OIL AND AN AIR HAMMER. Put a wet rag on the control arm ball joints. Heat, spray and air hammer. Keep repeating and you'll see a space form at the bolt head. Victory will follow soon after. I replaced the bolt and never seized the ever living hell out of it.

Fire gun 5 minutes and is coming out not snap

Grubo

....... im fucked

Penetrating spray perhaps 😮

Stuiped way i ever seen, you need army lads and arsenal of equipment. I remove these on the car,without takin then out,just use heat gun to heat the area..even you broke the bolt..some mechanics today.

All you needed is WD-40 and 10 min. to loosen, then you'll see the magic when you unscrew it.