Removing rounded off wishbone bolt..help please!

[bnor82]

Hi All, I have recently decided to embark on restoring my 2001 Seat Ibiza Cupra. It has been on axle stands on my drive for far too long while i was doing up the house.
I bought new wishbones to replace, along with most running gear to be fair, however i have rounded off the bolt on the front of the wishbone and see no way of getting it off.
I have tried hammering a smaller socket on, grips, using the special sockets for rounded off bolts, cutting a flat head with a dremel and eventually went with trying to take it off with a dremel! Still no joy. I can't really get the angle to cut the bolt off because of the bottom of the engine on the other side. As far as i can tell the only option left to me is angle grinder but am a little concerned that i will end going through the subframe. Does anybody have any ideas how i can get this off? Any help very much appreciated! I really want to avoid having to replace the whole subframe if possible.

 

[RADIOTWO]

Hi All, I have recently decided to embark on restoring my 2001 Seat Ibiza Cupra. It has been on axle stands on my drive for far too long while i was doing up the house.
I bought new wishbones to replace, along with most running gear to be fair, however i have rounded off the bolt on the front of the wishbone and see no way of getting it off.
I have tried hammering a smaller socket on, grips, using the special sockets for rounded off bolts, cutting a flat head with a dremel and eventually went with trying to take it off with a dremel! Still no joy. I can't really get the angle to cut the bolt off because of the bottom of the engine on the other side. As far as i can tell the only option left to me is angle grinder but am a little concerned that i will end going through the subframe. Does anybody have any ideas how i can get this off? Any help very much appreciated! I really want to avoid having to replace the whole subframe if possible.

A little trick some one showed me some time ago was to get a mobile welder to weld a decent nut onto the bolt head then you cfould get a decent socket on it, hope you can get to it to do that

 

[bnor82]

A little trick some one showed me some time ago was to get a mobile welder to weld a decent nut onto the bolt head then you cfould get a decent socket on it, hope you can get to it to do that

Thanks RADIOTWO for your reply. I have looked up mobile welders near me and have found one (https://stella-welding.co.uk) I did wonder if that would cost more than the subframe! No harm in asking i guess. Will contact them on Monday to see what they would charge to come and weld a nut on. Thanks again!

 

[DeanMcclaughlin]

Welding is probably your best option to be fair buddy. I'm assuming you don't have a workshops worth of tools at your disposal to attack it from every conceivable angle. In future any time a bolt feels like it's not budging spray the fook out of it with wd40 then get a camping blow torch on it for a couple minutes. Also avoid using 12 point sockets on big tough bolts, it'll round them off before you know what happened, stick to 6 point sockets that hug the head properly.