Broken UCA bolt, safe enough to drive to dealership?

[john11gt]

Long story short, I snapped one of the bolts for the UCA and need to know if its safe enough to drive the 20 miles to the dealership to get it fixed. The bolt I broke is one of the two holding the bracket to the body, not the one under the back seat.

Almost the entire drive to the dealership is highway and I would keep it around 55 mph, I just want to avoid the hassle of having to get a tow truck come and pick my car up and take it there if I can.

 

[Mineral_01']

If the other two bolts are torqued and holding the bracket securely, I suspect you will just fine. I think it goes without saying, but I would recommend very easy throttle inputs and smooth deceleration. Save the money on the tow truck, just drive it.

 

[Scott8583]

How did this happen?

 

[john11gt]

I installed a Steeda uca a few months ago but when I put it on, I never used any loctite, so Ive been having to re tighten the bolts every few weeks. Today I pulled the bolts out and put some loctite on them and when I was tightening the one down, I got it tight and thought to myself, "Ill put just a little more on it" and thats when it let loose.

I went out and bought some drill bits and stuff and I was going to drill it out but being in a driveway on jackstands, it was really looking like a nightmare. I have some pretty bad luck when it comes to fixing cars it seems and usually end up breaking something, I broke the bolt today and about a month ago I was replacing my caliper and I broke the banjo bolt off in the new caliper, and a few weeks before that I was doing the breaks on my girlfriends parents van and when trying to break the wheel free from the hub I broke the tpms sensor, to name a few. Its never ending, lol.

I also work nights Sunday-Thursday and I have school before work Monday-Wednesday so I dont have much time to be messing around with it, especially being my daily.

 

[Tob]

Do you ever use a torque wrench?

 

[Kornilov]

Do you ever use a torque wrench?

Tob, I know you know your shit, but from my perspective:

Its very hard to use a torque wrench on these UCA bolts with the car on jackstands on you on your back. First, you need a significant amount of extensions to reach this bolt, second the extensions sometimes take on an angle as they come down to the ratchet in order to clear axle or exhaust. Lastly, if youre on your back, trying to smoothly turn the torque wrench while keeping the socket on the fastener and also supporting the head of the torque wrench, you inadvertently apply a lot of lateral angle that throw of the torque wrench. I can easily see someone overtorquing a bolt in this situation even with a quality torque wrench on the appropriate setting. In these situations, Ive learned to turn the wrench until I feel a significant amount of resistance, even if I dont hear the 'click'.

 

[Kornilov]

OP, how does the break look? Did the bolt head sheer off and leave a stud threaded into the hole?

If so, you can just remove the UCA completely and use a pair of pliers to unthread the stud. If its flush, as it sounds like it may be then your job is a bit harder. But if your remove the UCA completely, and use some quality drill bits and left hand bits, you should be able to get the stud left in there without too much trouble. Once the head of the bolt snapped, it relieve a lot of the tension on the body of the bolt, so undo-ing the threaded portion shouldnt be a massive pain.

But yeah, you should be fine to drive at a very relaxed pace to the dealer - or any competent shop really to get this out. Expect to pay an hour's labor though.

 

[Steveespo]

If you have Loctite on this bolt it's gonna need heat to remove. If they don't heat it they will break left hand bits or easy outs. This is a tough one, probably have to release the OA pipe on that side to get at it. Buy a torque wrench, now you see why. Probably OK to drive, slowly 40-50 max. If it feels funny, stop. Good luck with it.
Steve

 

[john11gt]

Ugh, no I didnt Tob. My dad made a joke and said, "Do you know what Im getting you for Christmas? A torque wrench." I was going to pick one up yesterday too and for whatever reason I didnt but Ive had to re tighten it a few times already so I wasnt even thinking about breaking it off.

Thanks Kornilov, Im going to take it to the dealer shortly and if I can get away with only paying an hours labor, Ill be happy, I was expecting it to take a bit longer than that.

 

[Kornilov]

Ugh, no I didnt Tob. My dad made a joke and said, "Do you know what Im getting you for Christmas? A torque wrench." I was going to pick one up yesterday too and for whatever reason I didnt but Ive had to re tighten it a few times already so I wasnt even thinking about breaking it off.

Thanks Kornilov, Im going to take it to the dealer shortly and if I can get away with only paying an hours labor, Ill be happy, I was expecting it to take a bit longer than that.

I should've said 'at least'. Expect the dealer SA to bend you over as much as possible.

Like I said, if you have a good shop nearby, I would go there first.

 

[john11gt]

I wish there was a good shop around here, Ive taken cars to pretty much every shop around here for some things here and there and every shop has half assed the job or screwed me over.

I was planning on taking it to the dealer in hopes that they are competent enough to do the job, although I know not all dealers are. The dealer I got my car from, their transmission guy, didnt feel confident putting an aftermarket clutch in because there were shims that had to be adjusted.

 

[Zemedici]

I wish there was a good shop around here, Ive taken cars to pretty much every shop around here for some things here and there and every shop has half assed the job or screwed me over.

I was planning on taking it to the dealer in hopes that they are competent enough to do the job, although I know not all dealers are. The dealer I got my car from, their transmission guy, didnt feel confident putting an aftermarket clutch in because there were shims that had to be adjusted.

That's ok, my old dealer's transmission tech did the clutch job on my car, and completely botched it. Pivot ball basically fell out of the transmission. :lol:

 

[me32]

why not use the towing from the ford road side

 

[john11gt]

I didnt even know Ford had a roadside towing, the car has 72k on it so I dont think I could even use it anyway.

I got the car to the dealership ok, I did 55 the whole way and had no problems. They said pretty much what I said and that its going to be a pain and theyre not sure how long its going to take but that they will start on it Monday.

Thats crazy about that tech Zemedici, you would think that they could handle that type of stuff considering they are the transmission guy. I was in disbelief when they told me that THE transmission guy wasnt comfortable doing transmission work, I told them if their only transmission guy wasnt confident in his capabilities they should probably find a new transmission guy.

 

[blackbeast12]

Are you sure you want your dealer working on an aftermarket uca? your out of warranty so i'd take it to a speed shop that does quality work, it will cost less to!

 

[john11gt]

I was thinking about it and Im going to call the dealer up on Monday morning and tell them to hold off working on it and Im going to call another shop and see if they can give me a price to do it and if its better Ill go there and if not Ill let the dealer. The dealer Im going to is a FRPP dealer so Im sure theyre no stranger to aftermarket parts.

Ive been to literally 6-7 shops around my town and theyve all been bad for one reason or another, Ive even been to two speed shops and even they werent exactly the best either.