My car was towed home yesterday. As the car was coming off the truck, the tow hook extension broke within the hole on the front bumper (see pictures below).






The driver was very apologetic, said he'd never seen something like that happen. I wasn't mad, just annoyed. Looking at it, I have no idea how I am going to get it out. He said he'd be happy to pay for a replacement part, and also come out on the weekend and help me remove it. The latter part, I wasn't so comfortable with, only because I don't know how well he could do it, or, if he would make it worse.

Researching last night, I found some videos on YouTube explaining methods on how to do this. This video was probably the best in terms of how he did it (in my humble, amature opinion)


I am hoping someone else has experience with this, and can tell me what to do. I'd really prefer not to have to remove the front bumper and replace front structures on the car, but if I have to, then I have to.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

we almost had an ap1 rolls of the cliff cause the tow hook bolt broke, if it wasnt for a small rock it would have been a huge mess.

 

Just use a bolt extractor, easy. There's no torque on the threads anymore since the extension is not applying pressure on them. It should be pretty darn easy to get out. Drill out the center with the appropriate size bit and then use the extractor. Shouldn't take more than 3-5 minutes.

 

Yes should be easy.

Some extractor kits come with a left hand drill bit.

As Jordan said the torque has been removed, and sometimes by just drilling the drill bit will spin it right out.

 

Take measures to protect your paint or remove the bumper if you're really ham-fisted.

Worst case, replace the bumper beam.