I had a nice afternoon pissing about in my mate's tiny garage trying to bleed the brakes on my Golf GTi. The driver's side front bleed nipple is as rusty as a rusty thing, and someone's already had a go at rounding it off at some point in the past, meaning I can't get a spanner or socket onto it. Does anyone know any magic ways of getting them out, or any garage daft enough to have menu prices for a fluid change?
Taking the calliper off is your first move, things are much easier when its sat on the bench in front of you.
Grip the nipple in a vice, and screw the calliper off it. Try mole grips. Put a drill down the middle, size slightly smaller than the root diameter of the thread. Gas Axe (you may need to remove the seals etc first).
New calliper.
Caused by lack of servicing.
Bleed it to the flexi hose end instead. Or lock a pair of mole grips on the nipple and warm up the caliper with a blow torch. Or remove the caliper and lock the nipple in a vice, then warm/turn as appropriate.
mrcheerful
Sounds like it'd be easier to get the calipers off my old 16V fettled and upgrade to 16V brakes at the same time...
Sounds like a good plan, if you have all the bits handy.
Are your brakes still working at the moment?
If it's that nackered, you'll want to replace it anyway. Just don't break it off! Try a hex socket not a 12-point, maybe even go for an imperial type which might fit the damaged tighter. Put some WD40 or better still Plus-gas onto the screw thread a few hours before to help unseize it. Try tightening a tiny fraction before undoing - just the tiniest fraction! This may break the grip in compression rather than in tension, and reduce the chance of breaking it off. Heat can help, but it's not easy to heat much in place.
If you're changing the screw, mole grips might do a better job than a slipping socket, particularly if it isn't deep enough to fit properly.
Again, it can be a tiny difference between undoing the screw and breaking it off. Do be cautious.
Nah, I'm driving around with my fingers crossed ;)
Can't even get a surface drive 10mm socket on it. The Imperial socket idea had occurred but I reckon it'd probably just bugger the nipple if someone's already rounded it. I reckon I'll put on the 16V brakes and fettle the 8V brakes once they're off the car, then flog em.
Ta
OK, as an aside many people advocate getting it hot with a torch before undoing it. I've always undone things like this by dribbling boiling water over the bit to be exapnded - always works a lot better than a torch.
I've also easily removed alloy wheels with a kettle of hot H2O when a gas torch wouldn't free them off the hub too.
Am I missing something with a blowtorch here or have I discovered something that the world should be told about?
weld an M10 nut onto to it.
It's certainly another tool for the box, and if it doesn't work there's probably a bit of hot water left for a cup of coffee. In this case, you want to heat up the caliper anyway, so a quick dousing might just do the trick, and couldn't hurt.
I wish there was a tool that would warn just before you brake an important part, rather than just after, as most tools do. Having said that, I've found the most effective thing is to have always done the maintenance yourself - that way things are done up sensibly tight, copper-greased on assembly where there is a corrosion problem, and generally treated better than by the guy who just has to get it done to get paid without worrying about the next time it needs doing.
The message from "Dave Hall" contains these words:
There is - it's called "experience". You get it from having broken dozens of similar parts over the years.
Kids don't get a chance to accquire it these days 'cos they're not allowed to break things.
He he. First thing I do with a new car is undo all the exhaust, suspension and possibly the manifold bolts and copper slip them. Some will be sods to undo and may shear or brake, but at least they do it on my terms, ie sunny afternoon, loaner on hand to get replacements and no time pressure to fix the damn thing!
Dead right, an old (i.e. experienced) motor engineer friend of mine used to say that an engineer is someone who knows when to go gently, gently with something or when to clout it with a big hammer. He was right, and it takes years of experience to know this.
Bill
I make a point of copperslipping any bolt that has a chance of seizing if I undo it. I've recently gone back to doing a bit more work myself (less cash/more time) and I take my time over simple jobs like brake discs/pads, copperslip it all, cleanall the rust, grease the sliders with caliper grease, because if it goes wrong, I have to fix it.
Doki,
I'm probably a bit too late, but if you have a metal vice, Simon's idea really does work. I've just successfully removed a bleed nipple using this method, gripping the best flats of the nipple in the vice.
Once, the caliper's off the car, you can hold it horizontal in the vice and apply Plusgas (after using a small wire brush on the threads) say once every 2 hours, two or three times. Because it's flat, the fluid can penetrate more easily.
You're right of course, and I don't break much these days as a result of taking care. However, you can still get caught out, as a clutch bolt showed me recently - may have been cracked already I suppose. That needed the mig-weld trick to put a blob of metal on the broken end to clamp a mole-grip onto.
The message from "Dave Hall" contains these words:
Useful trick that - not only gives you a second chance but the heat usually frees the bolt anyway.
"Chris Bartram" wrote in message news:FoXtf.18271$ snipped-for-privacy@text.news.blueyonder.co.uk...
Care and attention when dismantling, and reassembly with Coppaslip (or similar) goes a very long way to easy maintenance on most mechanisms - cars, bikes, lawnmowers too. If something doesn't want to come apart, a rummage through the armoury of alternative tools such as heat/cold/shock usually does the trick. If stress and bad temper is getting to you stand back, make yourself a brew, and take another look at the situation - it's easy to overlook something when under pressure to get things fixed. I once tried for ages to shift a track-rod end using Plus-Gas, heat, grunt, length of pipe, and eventually clamped the thing in an old fashioned blacksmiths leg-vice, and it still wouldn't budge. Eventually the vice lost its grip, and the arm with track-rod end still attached flew about 10 yards across a stream into a field of long grass. After retrieving it and having a cuppa, careful study revealed that it was, of course, a left-hand thread! Another thing that can save you some grief is maintenance is simple observation, which ain't exactly hard work. Sounds obvious, but when you walk up to a car, puddles of oil or water under it are a bit of a give-away, as are squidgy tyres, dangling exhausts, and cracked or broken lenses. Same with simple under-the-bonnet stuff. When topping up yer washers it's easy to cast an eye around for anything abnormal like oil or water leaks, frayed cables or belts - just about anything you can think about really. That way you can sometimes (but not always!) catch a fault before it becomes a problem. My first motor at age 18 (Austin A35 van) needed regular attention to keep it going, and as I was skint there was really no option but to do it myself. Cars are so reliable these days that many people have no incentive to maintain them themselves between services if something goes wrong.
Blimey, don't I ramble on...
Hi Doki
Nip down to Maplins and get a can of freezer spray. Squirt it down the hole of the bleed screw until its blimey cold, hopefully the contraction effect will break the oxide layer holding it in place and you can get a mole wrench on it whilst its still cold and turn it free.
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