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Hi guys, first post on the 958 forum I believe. I purchased my 2011 CTT a couple years ago with about 70k, and brought it to one of the local Pcar dealers at that time, who stated all of the recommended routine maintenance on my CTT had been done at their service dept by the previous owner, including the 60k service. Since we're going on a family vacation soon I thought I'd check off some maintenance boxes to be safe, prior to the trip. The first item I checked was the battery. I was amazed to find it was still the original Varta battery, with a build date in 2010! I've had zero battery issues, but do occasionally throw on my CTEK tender on the CTT, which is in a heated garage. Needless to say, I ran out to purchase a new battery.
Anyway, the reason for my thread... I decided to replace all of the plugs and coils prior to our road trip. Naturally as the title of the thread alludes, the first two broke while attempting to remove them. I stopped work, did a little research, and ordered 8 new bolts. Now I see this is a common problem, question is, what is the best route for trying to remove the remaining 6 bolts? I'm already dreading an attempt at removing the current 2 broken bolts from the valve cover and can't imagine having to deal with another 6 breaking off. Any advice on the best plan of attack to hopefully avoid a few more breaking? If it happens, so be it, I'll pull the valve covers at that point, but of course would like to avoid that if possible. Thanks in advance!!!
Since it's my first post on the 958 forum, here's the obligatory pic of my CTT, sorry it's a crappy dealer pic but apparently I have no others:
Thanks CAVU. Yes, from what I've read so far all that is correct. Both bolts have sheared flush with the cover. I could run back out and take a couple pics but there's not much to see at this point. I haven't started an attempt at removing the remainder of the bolt. Hoping someone may have run into this and discovered a useful trick to help free the bolts when they expected issues. I'm thinking these are the original bolts, the threads appear to have some sort of oxidation on them.
the threads appear to have some sort of oxidation on them.
I would put a couple of drops of your favorite penetrant elixir on each and let it soak overnight.
I would most likely approach this with creating a divot in the center of the bolt with a center punch. use multiple taps, vice one big one, with the hammer so as to not bugger the valve cover.
Then I would start with a small diameter reverse/rightleft hand drill bit. at least half the diameter smaller. Put some tape at the maximum depth to drill on the bit as a guide and then start drilling. My guess is the bit will grab and spin the bolt out before you move to the next bit up. If you move up in diameter, you just want to avoid hitting the valve cover's threads.
I am sure others who have experienced this will share their experience.
Good advice, thanks. We'll see if a few rounds of PB Blaster does the trick and go from there. I've had good luck with easy-outs in the past but seems like this magnesium-aluminum combination can be rather difficult.
Was it you who definitely broke them on their way out? They could possibly be reused and already halfway stressed. Either way they are broken. RAudi taught me a trick to getting those aluminum bolts out, try using a dental pick. I had a broken timing cover bolt and it spun right out with a dental pick. I would have never tried it if he hadn't made the suggestion.
I ran into this problem when reinstalling the coil bolts the first time I did the plugs on a 2014 CTTS, except the bolt snapped when I was installing the coil, not when I was taking it off. Of course it was the rear-most cylinder on the passenger side, such that there's no way to position any kind of drill, tool etc. if I wanted to try and extract the fragment. In the end, I attached the broken of "head" of the snapped aluminum bolt to the beauty cover (coil bolts have a threaded hole where the beauty cover attaches to the coil bolt) and placed beauty cover back on, figuring that the snapped bolt would secure the coil, at least a little bit. That happened at 30K miles about 3 years ago and when I did the plugs and replaced the coils at 60K miles recently, the coil looked OK and I never had any problems over the past 3 years.
When I reattach coil bolts now, I insert the bolts by hand and do not ratchet them at all--finger tight only.
Not saying you should or shouldn't take off the valve cover to extract the fragments nor that my approach is "correct", merely relating my experience with this issue.
Felt them snap while I was attempting removal, though they may have been previously overtightened. Assuming the plugs were previously replaced I'm sure the techs reused the original bolts. I'm thinking the issue is related to corrosion, there is a fair amount of oxidation on the threads of the snapped heads. I'm going to give a few light taps with a punch and try a pick, but am not optimistic that will work based on what I've seen so far.
I do know to be cautious with the easy out. Next step is to try to remove the remaining two on the passenger side. If they snap, the cover is probably coming off.
Was it you who definitely broke them on their way out?
Had my 2017 958.2 in the dealer for warranty work a few months ago and today I discovered the trained Porsche technician used a SHEET METAL SCREW in one of the 9 threaded holes under the car holding the guard plate onto the underside! I couldn't believe it! That's something a 12 yr old might do until he learns how to use tools.
Well he succeeded in "getting it off the lift" which had to be the goal. I was the only one to work on the car prior to and after them screwing it up. I just shake my head when I imagine the thought process that gets a supposed mechanic to that point.
I ran into this problem when reinstalling the coil bolts the first time I did the plugs on a 2014 CTTS, except the bolt snapped when I was installing the coil, not when I was taking it off. Of course it was the rear-most cylinder on the passenger side, such that there's no way to position any kind of drill, tool etc. if I wanted to try and extract the fragment. In the end, I attached the broken of "head" of the snapped aluminum bolt to the beauty cover (coil bolts have a threaded hole where the beauty cover attaches to the coil bolt) and placed beauty cover back on, figuring that the snapped bolt would secure the coil, at least a little bit. That happened at 30K miles about 3 years ago and when I did the plugs and replaced the coils at 60K miles recently, the coil looked OK and I never had any problems over the past 3 years.
When I reattach coil bolts now, I insert the bolts by hand and do not ratchet them at all--finger tight only.
Not saying you should or shouldn't take off the valve cover to extract the fragments nor that my approach is "correct", merely relating my experience with this issue.
Of course it's always the one in the hardest to reach location... Thanks, that is something to consider and apparently others have been okay with that approach. I will certainly consider that prior to opening another can of worms!
Had my 2017 958.2 in the dealer for warranty work a few months ago and today I discovered the trained Porsche technician used a SHEET METAL SCREW in one of the 9 threaded holes under the car holding the guard plate onto the underside! I couldn't believe it! That's something a 12 yr old might do until he learns how to use tools.
Well he succeeded in "getting it off the lift" which had to be the goal. I was the only one to work on the car prior to and after them screwing it up. I just shake my head when I imagine the thought process that gets a supposed mechanic to that point.
I would be quite pissed off. But there is a fix. TIME-SERT.
Had my 2017 958.2 in the dealer for warranty work a few months ago and today I discovered the trained Porsche technician used a SHEET METAL SCREW in one of the 9 threaded holes under the car holding the guard plate onto the underside! I couldn't believe it! That's something a 12 yr old might do until he learns how to use tools.
Well he succeeded in "getting it off the lift" which had to be the goal. I was the only one to work on the car prior to and after them screwing it up. I just shake my head when I imagine the thought process that gets a supposed mechanic to that point.
That is flat out laziness, I would assume they have plenty of them on hand as fasteners like to disappear on even the best mechanics. After twice having the aluminum drain plugs stripped by the dealer on my previous 2006 Cayenne S, I will no longer bring my vehicles in to them for even basic maintenance.
03-13-2021, 09:23 PM
Ignition Coil Bolt Removal... 0 for 2...
