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Car Forum / MINI / February 2004Broken bolts on the thermostat housing?
I have noticed my car never reaches running temperature (I've had it for a week, and driven up to 2 hours straight in it, but it never reaches the 82 degree dot). Annoyed, I ordered a new thermostat from DCS, which arrived the other day. today, I went to install the new thermostat. Upon removing the "warm air duct", I discovered that there are two broken bolts on the thermostat housing - in other words, two of the three bolts are snapped off. 1) is this dangerous? What happens if the thermostat housing comes loose? 2) how can this be fixed? it's a 1990 Rover Cooper with a carb engine. h > I have noticed my car never reaches running temperature (I've had it for > a week, and driven up to 2 hours straight in it, but it never reaches > the 82 degree dot). Annoyed, I ordered a new thermostat from DCS, which > arrived the other day. Have you physically checked to see how hot the radiator feels after a run? > today, I went to install the new thermostat. Upon removing the "warm air > duct", I discovered that there are two broken bolts on the thermostat > housing - in other words, two of the three bolts are snapped off. > 1) is this dangerous? What happens if the thermostat housing comes > loose? "Dangerous" isn't the right word - it won't kill you, but when the water escapes it will kill the motor. > 2) how can this be fixed? Extracting broken studs or bolts isn't generally all that difficult, but if you haven't done it before it might be best to get someone who has to help you so that you don't dig yourself into a deeper hole. hiya this is quite common on mini's, when you get the old studs out replace them with allen key bolts and use lots of copper slip all over the bolt shaft to stop it siezeing inside the thermostat housing. fragged > I have noticed my car never reaches running temperature (I've had it for > a week, and driven up to 2 hours straight in it, but it never reaches [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > h > hiya > this is quite common on mini's, when you get the old studs out replace them > with allen key bolts and use lots of copper slip all over the bolt shaft to > stop it siezeing inside the thermostat housing. Hehe. here you seem to brush over the main problem: "When you get the old studs out"... Anyway, the place where I bought the car (P&L) are going to have a look at it, hopefully they can sort it for me for cheap. h hiya you are right i didnt offer any advice because there are hundreds of ways to get broken studs out but only someone with experience will be sucsessful at actually gettin them out, I dont know your skill level so giving advice might just give you enough knowledge to mess the head up completely.. fragged > I have noticed my car never reaches running temperature (I've had it for > a week, and driven up to 2 hours straight in it, but it never reaches [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > h Hi, The process for removing broken studs depends on where the studs are broken. If they are broken flush with the top of the thermostat housing, the problem is fairly easy. Heat up the housing around the studs and gently tap the side of the housing along the bit where the stud runs. This will eventually loosen the crud that holds the housing to the studs.The housing can then usually be levered off the studs. Sometimes the housing gets damaged, but a new or S/H housing is easy to find. Once the housing is off, heat the stud and give it a few hits on the top of the stud with a hammer before you attempt to unscrew it. If the stud has broken flush with the cylinder head, then the process is to drill the dead centre of the stud and use a stud extractor. This is like a coarse left hand spiral taper which gets tighter as you twist it to unscrew the stud. It might be advisable to get professional help here if you are not confident or do not have a set of extracters. Keith > If the stud has broken flush with the cylinder head, then the process is to > drill the dead centre of the stud and use a stud extractor. This is like a > coarse left hand spiral taper which gets tighter as you twist it to unscrew > the stud. It might be advisable to get professional help here if you are not > confident or do not have a set of extracters. Beware of using stud extractors or 'easy outs' as they are also called. They can work but you need to be very careful, as they are made of hardened steel. If they snap off in the process of trying to extract the stud you are really screwed! You can't drill them out because they are as hard as a drill bit. When I removed a stud last I tried very carefully for a while and then gave up and drilled out the old stud carefully with a drill bit smaller than the stud.. then retapped the hole. Didn't even have to make the thread a larger size, as I had drilled out the stud very carefully. My broken bolt was the top engine steady which is a very popular one to break, and needed a snake like drill extension to get to James |
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