Broke front sway bar bolt... now what?

**mochsl99** · 02-16-2013 10:45 AM

Well, I battled through and successfully replaced upper and lower control arms last weekend (http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...in-the-knuckle!).

This weekend, all I had to do was tighten everything under load, then put the brakes and wheels on, and I would have been done.

Was torquing everything to the specs I found in another thread, which had:

Lower connection to the sway bar - 100 Nm

Well, I wasn't even close to that torque value when the bolt snapped in half, leaving the threaded part in the sway bar.

Now what?

Drill it out? Replace the whole sway bar? I'm pretty much done at this point. Can I put the wheels on and drive it to a mechanic with a broken sway bar bolt?

ugh.

**Timtheguru** · 02-16-2013 10:51 AM

Please post a pic up, I think you can extract it easily, unless you cross threaded it, It should just come out by hand. Grab a new bolt and you should be good. 100nm or 73 ft/lb should not have broken the bolt.

**mochsl99** · 02-16-2013 11:12 AM

It broke off right where the threads start (approximately 1" from the bolt head), so the piece that's lodged in the sway bar is 1" inside the swaybar. Can't really get a picture of it, as it just shows a black hole.

**MikTip** · 02-16-2013 11:27 AM

Left hand drill it or drill it and easy out it....BTDT! Happened to me and others...no biggy!

**SlickFix** · 02-16-2013 03:34 PM

BTDT?

**MikTip** · 02-16-2013 04:49 PM

Been there done that.

LMFAO!

**Timtheguru** · 02-16-2013 04:52 PM

LMFAO = Laughing my fat ass off

**MikTip** · 02-16-2013 05:05 PM

Originally Posted by Timtheguru

LMFAO = Laughing my fat ass off

You been checking out my ass?

**Timtheguru** · 02-16-2013 05:09 PM

I was just clarifying for Slick, but I heard you could put other F words in there.

**SlickFix** · 02-16-2013 06:23 PM

Haha, I'm mostly hip to internet lingo, but haven't seen BTDT yet.

**old guy** · 02-17-2013 03:50 AM

I'm not surprised that you broke that bolt. 100Nm is way too much. Hell, that's almost wheel lug bolt torque. The proper setting is 45Nm.

Get a small center punch and you can turn the broken bolt out by placing the point of the punch near the edge of the bolt and lightly tapping the bolt counterclockwise. Take your time and it will eventually turn all the way out. If you hit it too hard you will distort the threads. If that happens you will need to drill a center hole in the bolt and use an EZ out to turn the bolt.

And yes you can drive the car with the sway bar disconnected. Just don't try any fast corners :0

**mochsl99** · 02-17-2013 05:26 PM

As usual, old guy is right.

For future reference, here is a thread that includes the Bentley manual torque specs:

AZ thread

I was following an extremely helpful DIY in another forum, which unfortunately included the following torque information:

Lower connection to the sway bar - 100 Nm

Maybe I misinterpreted...

Now, I will wrap up this whole saga by saying, I was able to get the threaded part of the bolt out by removing the sway bar link completely, which allowed me to get a grip on the broken end, and remove it manually. No fancy tools required.

I discovered, however, that the bolts that were in place there (the original ones that came on my A4 when I purchased it 2 years ago) were definitely not OEM. Check out the picture (on the left are OEM, on the right my broken one and its mate):

They were crappy relatively lightweight substitutes, I only realized after I ran to the dealership and picked up the OEM replacements, which are substantially more rugged and clearly hardened steel. So, in the end I was able to get everything torqued back down as close as possible to spec, and the car is on the ground, running. Feels pretty good, both the quality of the ride and the sense of accomplishment to have done upper and lower control arms myself. Next up: Motor mounts.

Final question: I did not replace the tie rod ends (they looked to be in pretty good shape, and the ones in my kit (EuroSpec) appeared significantly lower quality). Do I still need to do a 4-wheel alignment?

**SlickFix** · 02-18-2013 05:43 AM

Sorry mochsl, that was my fault for the mis-information about the 100 NM. I can't edit my post on that DIY for some reason, but I'll try to get one of the admins on the forum to make the change to 45 NM. My deepest apologies for the bad info.

**MikTip** · 02-18-2013 05:48 AM

Originally Posted by mochsl99

Do I still need to do a 4-wheel alignment?

Yes, and no.

Yes because you installed new suspension bits.

No if during your install you did not alter any of the alignment settings.

But how do you know the alignment was spot on before you started?

An alignment cant hurt and will set your car for the new suspension parts.

**diagnosticator** · 02-18-2013 06:08 AM

Originally Posted by SlickFix

Sorry mochsl, that was my fault for the mis-information about the 100 NM. I can't edit my post on that DIY for some reason, but I'll try to get one of the admins on the forum to make the change to 45 NM. My deepest apologies for the bad info.

Good Karma to you for admitting the error and trying to fix it! You are forgiven.

**mochsl99** · 02-18-2013 07:50 AM

Originally Posted by SlickFix

Sorry mochsl, that was my fault for the mis-information about the 100 NM. I can't edit my post on that DIY for some reason, but I'll try to get one of the admins on the forum to make the change to 45 NM. My deepest apologies for the bad info.

No apology necessary. Your 4-part DIY was extremely helpful and I couldn't have gotten the job done without it. I should have cross-referenced the torque values (I own the Bentley manual, just too lazy to go get it from upstairs!) — and anyway, I'm pretty sure a big part of the problem was the crappy bolt I was re-using down there.