Bumper bar not coming off for timing belt replacement!?

[Dan TheMan Welburn]

Hi all got my bumper off in preperation to do timing belt kit/waterpump etc, the bumper bar is held on with 3 t45 torx bolts either side, i have attached a t45 to a 2 foot breaker bar, and its snapped 3 t45 bits not one of the bolts are shifting,

any ideas how to overcome this? ive attemped to remove rads with bar in place, got ac condensor off but because of the length of the coolant hoses attached to the main radiator there isnt enough room to wriggle it out

any ideas??

 

[sumo]

Get a big hammer and hit the head of the bolt to break the grip of the thread.don't deform the bolt head though, you may need to use a drift to get a couple of good hits in.

Or try a bit of heat from piant striper gun.

 

[Dan TheMan Welburn]

Ill have to see if i have any t45 bits left ive got the bumper bar off now but obviously i dont have the room to get into the timing belt cover and crank pulley bolts

ill give the hammer a go if i can find a torx bit otherwise ill have to get a lift to halfords to replace the one out of my toolbox

cheers

 

[Dan TheMan Welburn]

One bolt off out of 6 these are worse then my suspension pinch bolts were, worst comes to the worst ill have to cut the head off, drill through and use nuts and bolts when i re-assemble

Dan

 

[S4_dan]

Also, sometimes it's worth trying to tighten a bolt before undoing it. It helps break free any rust/corrosion on the threads. Even the smallest amount of movement tightening can be a big help.

 

[AudiLeon]

Give them a damn good hit with a hammer.

 

[Dan TheMan Welburn]

Managed to get one of 6 out in total i broke 8 t45 bits its blatantly been overtightened in the past, luckily tho with the little access i had i managed to change the timing belt tensioner, idler and water pump done my thermostat as well and also have a coolant hose to replace but access to that is also terrible lol its the oil cooler pipe goes into engine just under the tandem pump, cant get any pliers in to undo the clamp, gonna have to invest in some circlip pliers

 

[Dan TheMan Welburn]

even got the synchro angle dot on 0.0 how much water/coolant does the AWX engine hold? i only got one bottle of g13 from TPS so at the min its got 1.5litres of coolant and the rest water, i took it for a little spin and it swallowed what was in the expansion tank

 

[MooLard]

Sorry didn't spot this message quickly enough, I had trouble with the same bolts and broke several torx bits before buying this one made of steel: Torx star bit socket 1/2"drive T45 Endura brand industrial quality, CrV/S2 steel | eBay
It did warp a bit but didn't break. To help the bolts out I soaked them in some WD-40 from behind as well as hitting the bit with an extension on with a hammer. I then used my torque wrench as it's the longest bar I have to get them moving.