I am working on my winter projects and one is to dye the front seats. Yesterday, I started with the driver seat and was able to unscrew the mounting screws of the seats without significant effort and could remove the seat from the car. Today, I wanted to continue with the passenger side and 3 of 6 mounting bolts do not move at all. I am using a 6mm Hex Tool from Kobold and already "ruined" one head of the rear mounting screw (outside screw at the door side). Before I continue and make it worse with the 2 screws in the front, I am asking you for help:

1. Do I need to use a different tool? (Hex 6mm seems ok for me)
2. What is the best way to "remove" the the ruined bolt? Access to the head is kind of difficult. I cannot drill straight from the top and the head is within the seat runner which makes horizontal cutting impossible.
3. How should a proceed with the 2 front mounting screws that did not move? (the 6 mm hex tool already started slipping before I stopped)

I am stuck and the seat needs to come of. By the way. The dying for my black driver seat worked great. I got the material (cleaner, soffener and dye) from color-plus and the results are even better than expected.

Thanks for your help.
Erik

 

Some have had to resort to using a chisel to get the allen head to loosen up. These are soft bolts and one has to be deliberate with the right tools to get these to pop loose. May want to try the next largest SAE sized allen driver, tapping it into the bolt with a hammer. Sometimes this will work. The allen pocket is too shallow for an easy-out extractor unless you are crafty and grind the tip of the easy-out.

 

When you finally get the bolts out, replace them with harder hardware.

 

Chris,

would you chisel the head off or what is meant by "loosen"? Will this damage the thread?

Any other suggestion is very welcome.

Thanks,
Erik

 

I had to air chisel off one of mine.......and that still took forever! That little bastard just wouldn't let go! To soft to screw out, yet to hard to break free

 

These bolts are a known problem. The hex socket is shallow, and the metal is like cheese when you put some torque on it. It may help to put some good penetrant, such as Wurth Rost-Off or PB Blaster on the bolt and let it sit for a while. I was able to get out a couple of mine that stripped by using a sharp chisel and tapping it to get the bolt to turn, rather than trying to cut the head off.

 

Just like Bobby said, using a chisel on one side of the bolt in a CCW direction is what I meant.

 

you can try to dremel a slot in the top of the head with a carbon cut-off wheel and try to get a large blade screw driver in there... that has worked for me in the past..

Coleman.

 

This is why I have NOT attempted this on my own ... and why my sport seats are STILL collected dust in the shed.

When ... oh when ... will I ever get the damn things in my car?

Scott

 

Make sure you're using an allen tool that's not worn from use or made of soft material. Clean the hex hole so that the tool bottoms out in the hole. And apply downward pressure to keep it from rising out as you go to loosen the bolt but make sure the tool is staying inline with the bolt. Good luck!

 

And soak with liquid wrench...............Good Luck!!

 

+1 on the Dremel idea. The only problem with that is being able to get the screw driver perpendicular enough to bee effective. You may find a screw driver in kind of an “S” shape that may give you better clearance and more torque, but you may end up stripping out your new slot. Rather than air chisel out the bolt, I like the idea of using the Dremel with the carbon cutoff wheel (you could double them) and grind down the head. It really shouldn't take too long as the bolts are very soft (as everyone has stated). Run a vacuum next to the bolt to pick up the ground off pieces and keep air flowing over the bolt. Also, don't go more than 15 -20 seconds at a time and give the bolt time to cool off in between. It will get hot. After the seat is out, removing the rest of the bolt should be pretty easy. The key to loosening the bolts is in the alignment of the wrench. It must be kept perpendicular to the bolt. I am not talking about keeping the tail end of the wrench parallel to the bolt head as I'm sure you are already doing that. When you pull on the wrench, it tends to lean to the side you are pulling. Try pushing on the wrench with you thumb directly above the bolt in the opposite direction you are pulling on the tail. Then go to Home Depot and buy 12 8X20 metric hex bolts. Theses will have a taller head on them but your seat will still clear. I only used one washer under each bolt instead of two on the front.

Tom

PS. I don't know what Liquid Wrench will do to your carpet, so if you try that, put some plastic wrap underneath. LR is more for rust than the torque problem you are dealing with.

 

I am not real clear on which bolt you are talking about BUT here is my suggestion and I have taken out the seats before so I think it will work BUT it will take some time.

You NEED heat and I know that it is impossible to get a flame torch in any of those spots BUT it is NOT impossible to use a firestarter i.e. one of those fire starters that look like a gun i.e. has a handle and trigger and about a 6 inch barrel for lack of better words.

Since the bolt is sop soft, it should heat up rather easily. The fire starter will produce enough heat BUT will stay in a very controlled space. I would use aluminum foil sheets and sandwich a wet dish towel and use that to protect the actual seat material i.e. mask off the area just in case.

I think it will work for the other bolts that still have a head.

For the stripped one, you can buy a flex attachment for your drill and drill a hole through the side of the bolt. Then use an appropriate sized tool to turn it AFTER you apply heat.

 

The problem with heating the bolt is that will expand; you really want the captive nut to expand, not the bolt. And be careful as there's grease on the seat rails; enough heat and it will ignite!

 

The best penetrating oil I have found is Ole Red home brew: equal parts of kerosene (or diesel fuel), acetone, mineral spirits (or paint thinner), and automatic tranmission fluid. Put it in a spray bottle. Soak the bolt good and the nut from underneath if you can get to it. Let it sit over night and then soak it again.

I don't know what the bolt looks like (I guess I could go out in my garage and check mine) but I've had success using vise grips. The bolt is already ruined so you've got nothing to lose. As a last resort, I'd drill it out usng a slightly smaller drill than the bolt diameter and then tap that hole with a tap the thread size of the bolt. Sometimes just the drilling will remove the threads of the old bolt and if it does, chase it with a tap anyway. Heat also helps but I wouldn't risk setting my car on fire! Forget easy-outs or their variations. Those rascals are made of the hardest, most brittle steel known to man and when you break one off, you'll have a helluva time drilling it out 'cause it's harder than any drill bit!

Good luck,
Pete