F$€¥¥* Pinch Bolt

[czm]

So yesterday tried fitting coilovers on my b6 avant. As I have had issues with pinch bolts on other cars I thought I would tackle them first. OMFG!!!!!!!
what a complete **** they are.
Rung the head of but there was some movement of the thread so thought cool not seized, this will be easy!!
oohhhh no, those things are soooo tight.
lomg story short, got it out half way after 5hours of lump hammers, air chisels and blood sweat and tears. I gave up and going to limp it to my local garage in the morning.

Seriously, what a PITA they are.

 

[Steffgj]

I had a little look at mine as was thinking of fitting new springs... they look like they'll be alright but I'm sure that's just them being deceiving. Any thoughts?

 

[krisavant]

Not even worth the hassle, read so many horror stories about these bolts.
Took mine to the garage and paid £90 to have b5 perches put on.
To be fair they smothered the pinch bolts with copper grease when put back in, so must have been a pain.

 

[yendall24]

why do you need to remove the pinch bolt I have replaced loads of springs on a4s and a6s and never needed to remove the pinch bolt . I just take the whole leg out with the aluminium top plate attached no need then to remove the pinch bolt

 

[czm]

why do you need to remove the pinch bolt I have replaced loads of springs on a4s and a6s and never needed to remove the pinch bolt . I just take the whole leg out with the aluminium top plate attached no need then to remove the pinch bolt

You don't, I just though that I would be clever and while I was in there I would change them in case I need to replace the control arms ect in the future.
Serious error, don't even go near them unless you HAVE to

 

[czm]

I had a little look at mine as was thinking of fitting new springs... they look like they'll be alright but I'm sure that's just them being deceiving. Any thoughts?

View attachment 15410

Don't touch them unless you absolutely HAVE too.
Mine looked cleaner than that.

 

[pauldazzle]

PINCH BOLT REMOVAL made easy - pics

 

[SL11CKK]

Where was this guide when I needed it.

This guy made it look **** easy.

 

[czm]

That guide is no good for the b6,one the slots are on different sides (one front and one behind) and to the arm gets in the way so you can't undo the threaded left over out.

 

[Chris-Vspec]

We have just lowered our car, did the same as mentioned above and took the whole leg out and left the pinch bolts in. Why make life difficult for yourself??

maybe there should be a sticky on how to do the suspension without removing the pinch bolts, would save a lot of time and headaches for owners

 

[czm]

Agreed Chris, what's so damm annoying is that I had no plans to touch it and just remove the whole leg like you did..... However I looked at the pinch bolt and thought, can't be that hard!!!!!!! Oooooooooo how wrong I was.
Taking it to my local garage first thing in the morning, give them the headache.

 

[vr6gordy]

you dont have to undo pinch bolt do it this way first pop of the center cap of your wheel then undo the hub nut then jack car up and remove wheel then undo brake cailper then undo the caliper carrier remove brake disc then undo track rod end then split the lower 2 ball joints then undo the lower bolt that holds the strut then the 3 bolts under the bonnet then hold the suspesion in place... once all this is undone then remove the hole unit then place spring clamps on spring and once you got some play in the springs undo the top nut and the spring will be able to be removed ....... i got it down to 2 hours this way once the unit it out maybe you might be able to have the pinch bolt pressed out if you got or no someone with a press

 

[Ste_Nova]

undo bottom bolt, undo top bolts, use spring compressors, lift unit out, easy

 

[AlexGSi2000]

Yes, they are fun to remove.

Coilovers can be fitted without removing the pinchbolt, however I needed to remove the pinch bolts on mine to replace the upper suspension arms (I had one dead ball joint).

After many hours of trying different methods (air tools, vice, heat, drilling) the bolt was well and truly seized - I ended up purchasing a new suspension upright (was around £250).
A local garage managed to remove the second pinch bolt, but charged £180 for the privelidge!

I was actually thinking of widening the hole in the new upright slightly, but just opted to use plenty of copper grease and rest in the hope that I never actually need to remove it again!

 

[crazy88]

While I agree, it's not the worst thing in the world you could be doing. If you ever need to replace a top control arm you'll need them out so it's not a bad idea to get them out, and put new ones in with copper slip. My plan is to remove and regrease mine every 6 months now to stop them being evil again. It took 6 hours to remove the two bolts for us.

 

[quattrojames]

My plan is to remove and regrease mine every 6 months now to stop them being evil again.

Admittedly it's somewhat easier, but I do that with my number plate light screws lol

 

[A3_130]

How about putting in stainless steel replacements as well as copper grease once you've managed to get the old bolts out? Would save them corroding and they're a fairly standard bolt so shouldn't be hard to source stainless replacements I'd have thought.

 

[czm]

How about putting in stainless steel replacements as well as copper grease once you've managed to get the old bolts out? Would save them corroding and they're a fairly standard bolt so shouldn't be hard to source stainless replacements I'd have thought.

Good idea.

Drop it off at the garage this morning, just waiting on the dreaded phone call to tell me bad I screwed it up whenI was in my pinch bolt rage

 

[Andie0]

No need to take out punch boltt

 

[czm]

[FONT=&amp] 10 tonne press, removal of the complete arm and a special jig and its out![/FONT]


[FONT=&amp] Interestingly the guy at my local indy said that the bolt is actually tapered by about 1mm (which he never knew and has done loads of them before) so going the way we were trying is virtually impossible and the further you go the tighter it gets!![/FONT] The head rung so I was trying to use the thread to pull it out

[FONT=&amp]He said we were nuts to try and take it out and really not needed when changing the suspension which we knew but thought we would be clever – a very costly mistake but you live and learn! [/FONT]

 

[SL11CKK]

For me personally it was the fact that I started on it, I had to finish it.

The best bit about it is the feeling you get once the fu**er comes out. That sense of relief is what it is about when it comes to these sort of jobs.

 

[jayc94]

Heat heat heat! only easy way, you will need to change the top arms though.