It’s the noise that we all hate to hear: that sharp metallic snap that happily informs the idiot holding the wrench that the torque applied was far beyond what was needed and that now would be a good time to dig out the easy-out kit and maybe a nut that can be welded onto the stump of what’s left. Broken bolts are the most aggravating pain in the ass part of wrenching, hands down. It doesn’t matter if it’s a fairly simple situation where you simply snapped off the bolt head or if the last third of the header bolt is buried deep within the head. There’s a reason why “if you see these tools out, back away slowly and don’t say a word” is a meme…breaking bolts off might be more painful than repairing crash damage.
On one hand, I feel Brian Scotto’s pain. He’s got a car that’s pretty obscure, that uses random stuff that won’t be found in the parts store down the street, and when things break, it’s really a bad day. I understand that completely. But…and this is where I have to draw back some of my empathy for the guy…he’s working on an Audi from the East Coast. You know, rust hell. It’s a cool project that we’ve been watching ever since his buddies started kicking him in the ass to finish it, but it’s like watching a friend who is in the middle of relationship troubles. We want things to work out, we want nothing but happiness for them. But every time we look back we see nothing but drama, anger and maybe a tear or two.
Do you know someone that is suffering in a bad relationship with a car? Be a friend and lend a hand.
The post was really good. I liked it very much. Thank you.
I recently inherited my Dad’s 18 year old, 78K mile Audi A8 Quattro. Dads still around, but he finally got tired of the monthly repair bills. The quality of my 126 mile each way commute to my shop has really improved in the Audi, but my weekends are now clobbered with Audi repairs. In 3 months Ive already put more hours into the Audi than the total life time hours required to maintain and repair my 260K mile PT cruiser of the same age. Hoping that some day I can make it a whole month without wrenching on the car.