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caliper bolt is stuck on !! help

We must be doing the same thing today. I feel for you.

I was not able to get mine off with a combination of PB Blaster, skinning my knuckles, tapping, swearing, and wire-brushing. I'm going to rent an air wrench from Napa tomorrow, because it's just not worth any more time and trouble to me today. If I'd had a torch, and if I'd thought of it before I soaked the bolt in flammable liquid, I would have tried to heat it a bit to see if that loosened it.

Good luck!
 
You can still torch it after soaking it with PB. It'll just evaporate off. Some even suggest spraying after torching to get the metal to cool and contract and therefore penetrate better. I've used this tactic with success on a near-impossible tie-rod end.
 
Gonna sound crazy but on the driver side I placed a wrench on the bolt. And then used a floor jack to lift up on it, till it popped. Need to do it slowly so wrench won't slip. You have torx and regular bolt heads? My fronts were bolts and the rears were torx. I ended up with 3 stitches from the rear one.
 
Liquid wrench!! I used it yesterday so I could take them off and paint my calipers worked good even tho I struggeled a lil at first..
 
rollinstylee said:
You can still torch it after soaking it with PB. It'll just evaporate off. Some even suggest spraying after torching to get the metal to cool and contract and therefore penetrate better. I've used this tactic with success on a near-impossible tie-rod end.
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he's right... this is pretty common tactic among myself and other i know who have torches at their disposal...

another idea... if you can and have something that will do it... CHEATER BAR!!! if you don't know what i mean by that it's basically extending the handle of whatever tool you're using to break it loose.... the longer the handle the more leverage you have... you can also grab a hammer with a good bit of heft to it or a small sledge and tap on the end of the handle to get more leverage too... i have two hammers just for this purpose... they are hammer size but basically look like sledges and have brass heads... they do wonders on stuck bolts when used with a breaker bar or a good cheater bar...

for a cheater i suggest going to lowes or a hardware store and getting a length of steel pipe that has an inside diameter just large enough to slip over the end of your ratchet or whatever you're using....

you can also just take a normal hammer and lightly or semi lightly tap on the bolt (hitting it like it was a nail) a little to help maybe loosen its grip....

but if you don't have an impact tool i highly suggest borrowing, renting, or buying one... honestly... i couldn't tell you how much it's been worth the money i spent on mine!!!! but i've also got a pretty good compressor behind it too.... and those will usually break most stuff loose.... but what it doesn't i usually turn to my breaker bar and cheater bar and hammers.... cuz seriously... leverage makes ALL the difference in the world sometimes!!!

Good luck....!!!
 
astral said:
another idea... if you can and have something that will do it... CHEATER BAR!!! if you don't know what i mean by that it's basically extending the handle of whatever tool you're using to break it loose.... the longer the handle the more leverage you have... you can also grab a hammer with a good bit of heft to it or a small sledge and tap on the end of the handle to get more leverage too... i have two hammers just for this purpose... they are hammer size but basically look like sledges and have brass heads... they do wonders on stuck bolts when used with a breaker bar or a good cheater bar...

for a cheater i suggest going to lowes or a hardware store and getting a length of steel pipe that has an inside diameter just large enough to slip over the end of your ratchet or whatever you're using....

Good luck....!!!
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The problem with trying to use a cheater bar (at least on the rears) is that there is only about 15 degrees of movement allowed due to suspension bits and caliper parts, and you can't get a too-long cheater bar in there, because either the wheel well or the ground is in the way.
 
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alien_yet_familiar said:
The problem with trying to use a cheater bar (at least on the rears) is that there is only about 15 degrees of movement allowed due to suspension bits and caliper parts, and you can't get a too-long cheater bar in there, because either the wheel well or the ground is in the way.
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Yes but if you jack the car high enough you can get the longest bar you want.
 
i don't think it was said anywhere that the work was being done on the back wheels.... i kinda was just going on a rant about different ways to do it and stuff.... but Beans is right i believe.... that if you have it either up high enough on a jack or a jackstand you should be able to have decent room....
 
alright thanks guys for all the suggestions i tried a impact tool didn't turn ...the breaker bar sliped a few times and now its really hard for the torx bit to grab it i have to pull as hard as i can towards me then try and pull to loosen its not workin out so good ..tryin again today i'll let u know whats up wish me luck !!
 
is this the front of rear brakes you are referring to? If its the front brakes you have absolutely no need to take off the caliper bolts, you can just remove the two bolts that hold the whole bracket assembly to the hub, thats how I changed out my brake pads and rotors.
 
I ended up using a Dremel to to grind some flats into the exposed caliper bolt head, and using a large pair of locking pliers to break it loose. The downside is having to replace the caliper bolt afterward.

Or, and what I did on the other side of the car (live and learn) is to skip the caliper bolt entirely, and just remove the two bracket bolts, and pull the caliper and bracket together. The two bracket bolts together weren't even half as bad as the caliper bolt.

Then if you absolutely need to remove the caliper from the bracket, you can do it on a bench rather than the awkward behind the hub on the car angles.
 
yea pop the whole caliper and carier off in one shot and if u really wana reuse the caliper and wana get that torx pos out take a sharp center punch and place it right in the center of the torx slot and get a nice hammer and beat the hell out of it this will brake the tention on the tread and will let it come out easyer . next push the caliper to the outside of the carier this will expose the about an inch of the fastner that u can crab with a good vice grip nice and tight and it should ccome out

and yea u beating it with a center punch might sound dumb but actualy works i got out tons of bleeders that just dint wana go and if i forcet it any more it would brake a few wacks with a hammer it just came off same with bolts
 
So here's what I did:

After I got the caliper itself off, which was REALLY easy by comparison, I still couldn't get the caliper bracket bolts to budge. I sprayed the heck out of the bolts with PB Blaster or equivalent. That didn't have a discernible effect, so I borrowed a propane torch from my dad at his suggestion. I heated the bracket bolts up for about 15 seconds (way too hot to touch, but not red-hot). I was able to get the lower bolt to turn with WAY less effort. I wasn't able to get the top bolt loose, but because the lower bolt was off, I was able to rotate the bracket up (counter-clockwise on the passenger rear wheel) and it broke the top bolt loose enough that I was able to get it off with no problem.

Here's a pic of mine before I got anything off.

102.jpg


I have some more pics if it would help, but I don't have them uploaded online yet.
 
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