I accidentally overtorqued the bolts that hold the heatshield down. I went to the dealer to see what they can do, but the mechanic tells me that he'll need the weekend to think about how to extract the two bolts.

Is there anything I can do?

I feel like such a dumbass right now..

 

anyone?

 

You could drill them out or spike a knotch into the end of the bolt and then turn them out.

You can then retap the hole.

 

Yeah try some an Easy Out or other screw extractor. You probably want have to retap unless you mess up the threads when removing the broken bolts.

 

Did you strip the threads in the bolt holes and the bolts just spin in place, or did you break the heads off the bolts?
I've never experienced your problem with the S, but I have encountered it on other cars and here's what I've done. I normally use air tools for the job, but I'm going to assume that you don't have access to them.
If the bolts are intact but are just stripped and spinning in place, you can use a cordless drill with the correct sized socket to try to back the bolts out after placing a little penetrating oil around the head of each bolt and allowing the oil to penetrate for a bit. Don't use a corded drill as it will spin entirely too fast and you will have much less control over the revolution speed and torque. The cordless drill should give you just enough speed and torque to spin the bolts fast enough so that the threads will catch in the aluminum and back the bolts out of their holes without mucking up the bolt holes too badly.
Once you've removed the bolts, you will either have to re-tap the bolt holes for the next largest size diameter bolt, or buy a "Heli-coil" brand, or equivalent, threaded insert kit for the stock sized bolts. Then drill and tap the bolt holes with the drill bit and tap provided with the kit to the correct size, applying some red "Loctite" to the *outer* threads of the Heli-coil and carefully thread the coil into the hole and *allow the Loctite to set as directed* before inserting the bolts. You only want to lock the insert in place, not the bolt.

If you've broken the heads off the bolts, you might ask your mechanic to find a reverse drill bit to drill out and extract the bolts. The bits aren't easy to find usually, but I'm fairly sure that SnapOn tools sells them. I've used them a few times and have been able to remove the broken bolt without messing up the bolt hole threads.

 

Not a lot of room there.

 

^ Good question, now that I'm awake. I thought he was referring to the bolts used to hold the Ztec heat shield in place.

 

I "decapitated" the two "side" bolts that hold onto the ZTEC heatshield.

I also decapitated one of the "top" bolts that hold onto the wiring harness.

So basically there are three "half" bolts lodged in that solenoid.

 

Thanks for your help everybody, I think at this point I'm going to wait for the mechanic to get back to me.

If he doesn't, then I'm going to have to find someone else who can fix this for me.

Dean, thanks for all that great info , but being that I'm not the most mechanically inclined person, I think I'd rather have a professional mechanic fix this for me. After all, it was my own stupidity that got me here in the first place.

 

That's probably a wise choice on your part. Your mechanic will have to remove the solenoid bracket and hopefully there will be enough of the remaining bolts left to back them out with vice grips. If not, he/she may be able to tack weld a nut on the end of each bolt stub and back them out with a rachet.

The next time you're removing/installing bolts that small, use a quarter inch drive "stubby" rachet if you don't have a torque wrench of the appropriate size. That will lessen the chance of over-torqueing/breaking the bolts, since you'll usually need to use both hands on the rachet to apply enough force break the bolts. And don't use both hands!