...here's a reminder of how lucky you are:
We put Konis on my son's 2007 Civic Si yesterday. The rears had a nut at the top and bolt through the lower bushing. One nut, one bolt should be a 5 minute job, but we knew better as this is a common issue up here in Michigan. The inner sleeve on the bottom bolt was seized and needed lots of heat to get it out. Of course, lots of heat means lots of stink and fire as the rubber needs to burn away first. Most of the time, we can just heat the sleeve red and get the bolt out, but in this case, we needed to use a cutting torch to relieve the sleeve more radically.
And here's a little plea. Please grease any underbody bolts before installing them in case the car you're working on ever ends up in the rust belt.
Thank you for your time and have a nice day.
I know the pain.
Moving to California after 30+ years in Wisconsin, it's hard to describe just how joyous it is to be able to crack pretty much any fastener loose on the first try, and without razor sharp rust flakes all over everything to boot.
Still a big believer in anti-seize.
FloridaMan here, worked on heavy equipment that often worked reshaping dunes and such on the beach once storms came through. All the salt water in the sand, couple that with idiot operators that never dropped the belly pans to remove the sand?
I feel that pain. S.O.P. was to take a ball peen hammer and smack the head of the bolt to take the sheets of rust off the bolt, then give your best guess at the size of the bolt head then get an impact one size smaller and take that ball peen hammer and drive it onto the head of the bolt.
Thankfully heavy equipment is usually a wet bolt with hydraulic or engine oil on the other side, and big enough that it rarely snapped. About one in 10 would require welding a nut onto the head though.
berkeleyin lazy operators.
In reply to Carl Heideman :
Well, my pickup went from new to the junkyard in just 20 years. 371,000 miles. Original shocks and all suspension pieces. Believe it or not they were still functional. The engine/ trans was still good and as hard as I used that truck ( regularly massively overloaded it). Not unusual to haul 4000 pounds in the bed and another 6000 pounds on the trailer.
Original everything except intake gaskets, water pump, fuel pump, and alternator.
The dreaded tin worm got to it. Flapping doors, holey fenders. And brake lines. The second failure of those caused me to park it and call the scrap dealer.
It cost me $1,000 a year to own and less than $100 a year to maintain.
Years ago I bought a used car that had spent all its life in Arizona. Living in Ohio, I couldn't believe it when I ran my fingers across the brake lines. Mechanics have it tough in the rust belt.
In reply to rustybugkiller :
As a technician, I love it. I haven't had to do a failed emissions on a carbureted anything in decades!
Driving around with a 5-gas analyzer up the tailpipe after checking base timing and testing all the thermostatic vacuum switches and other stuff... good times.
Quick version of story...
My father-in-law passed away leaving a nice S10 here in Ohio. My b-i-l, hi son decides to move the good truck with him to Huntsville, AL. He takes the truck to a shop in Huntsville and they refuse to work on the truck citing unsafe levels of rust. In his defense, the b-i-l was a long time resident of Pittsburgh and a short time resident of Huntsville so he wasn't afraid of the truck but could not convince the shop of otherwise.
I'm a lifetime Michigan resident, rust is a way of life.
It's been mentioned before a 6" rust hole is minor here while down south the car is deemed beyond repair by some folks.
When someone from Arizona complains that a car is rusty, I mock them with laughter. They have no idea.
I just removed the slave on my 2006 S2000's transmission ... the bolts:
I've found some greases turn to some type of acid over time & can cause all types of galling / corrosion. I've used copper antiseize with good luck though.
