I’m hoping someone here has a trick to doing this. In preparation for my coil over install this weekend I brought the car in and up on the lift after work today. I wanted to spray everything down and start breaking bolts free to make life easy. I got one of the pinch bolts to turn. Sure enough the other side is stuck. I have it soaked in penetrating oil for now. I figured I’d post here and see what you have to say. Maybe there is a method I haven’t attempted.
There is a few things you can do that help. The suspension stuff sucks when it gets all bound up and frozen. If you have a picture of the one side I can work up a picture to show you where you can pry and push.
Also getting a big hammer in there to help knock the system can help. Some times a big shock of vibration will help do the trick. I also use a air fork to help un cease stubborn bolts.
I talked to a friend who is an audi tech. He said just heat it. Propane torch only, not oxy/acetylene. Worst case I’ll take the whole knuckle down to get the coil over in on that side. Either way I’ll still have to get it out when I put in the new upper control arms. I’m just way too excited to put the new suspension in. Ups has them coming to my work tomorrow, so for a change in can’t wait to get to work… thanks for the tips, by the sounds of it I’m going to be at it for a while.
I saw a DIY at one point in time that might offer another method of removing a stuck pinch bolt which may be useful. In essence, you wrench on it until the bolt head breaks off. That’s a good thing. After the bolt head breaks off you remove the nut, stack 2-3 washers under it (about 1/4" thickness, and make sure the ID of the washers is large enough to accommodate the shoulder of the bolt when the threaded portion ends) and put the nut back on. You want enough threads engaged so the end of the bolt is approximately flush with the nut, i.e. fully engaged but not protruding. At that point, tighten the nut against the washers - using it to pull the bolt. When you’ve pulled it so that about 1/4" of threads are extending out of the nut, you take the nut back off and stack more washers, put the nut back on and repeat. At each step as the bolt comes out, you may need to cut ~3/8" off the end of it otherwise it’ll interfere with the spindle and you won’t be able to get the nut off. Just cut it with a hacksaw or dremmel or an angle grinder.
The worst case scenario is that you twist both ends of the pinch bolt off but if that happens you’re no worse off than you are now and can break out the torch and BFH. Hope this helps.
BTW if the coilovers are used i would recommend getting them rebuilt just to be on the safe side. I bought a set of KW V3’s with supposedly 8000 miles on them. Installed them and within 3 months my front shock blew. Just a suggestion.