You can face an entire lifetime’s frustration while attempting to repair your car and not being able to pull off those rusted exhaust bolts. While rusting is a natural process and is inevitable as the nuts and bolts age with time, these can easily ruin your day by refusing to move easily.
To get rid of such stubborn rusted exhaust bolts, you need to apply certain techniques like impacting with proper force, using penetrating oil or thread loosener, heating, etc. Moreover, procedures like cutting the bolts or using a hand drill machine might also be needed in extreme cases.
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How To Remove Rusted Exhaust Bolts? [Best Method]
To remove rusted exhaust bolts, try using penetrating oil and allowing it to sit for several hours to loosen the rust. Alternatively, heat the bolt with a torch to expand the metal and make it easier to remove. If these methods do not work, a penetrating tool such as an easy-out or a carbide drill bit may be necessary. Always use caution and follow safety precautions when working on your vehicle.
How To Remove Rusted Exhaust Bolts: 6 Methods
Tackling rust in automobile parts is definitely not an easy task to accomplish. This is because you need to do this without damaging any of your vehicle’s parts. So, you can’t start hammering the bolts mindlessly or making holes here and there lest your car body will get ruined. However, there are a couple of effective and easy ways to remove rusted exhaust bolts. Let’s know more about these techniques in detail:
Before You Start With The Removal Techniques:
If you think you can save the bolts and breaking them off won’t be required, then make sure to remove as much rust as possible. Get a stiff wire brush for this process and use some elbow grease to remove the rust all the way from the root of the thread to the endings. This way the nut won’t seize while turning.
Method 1. Tools To Remove Rusted Bolts
You can tap the rusted bolts with an impact wrench in a hammering motion to create enough force and vibration to knock it off. While attempting to remove the rusted bolts, this is the top tool of choice for most mechanics.
Get a high-quality breaker bar that won’t break off while trying to impact the rusted bolts. Don’t go for open-ended wrenches because these are more likely to round off the flats of the stuck bolts and nuts. Keep in mind that 6 point metric sockets can be really effective with rusted bolts. You might also need to try with a nut splitter, a die grinder, or even a Dremel tool.
Note: Do wear eye protection glasses to save yourself from the impact and squinting won’t work here. Having the doctor pull out steel pieces from your eyes can be far more troublesome than pulling our rusty exhaust bolts.
Method 2. Soak With Penetrating Oil
If the stuck exhaust bolts cannot be cut or destroyed, you could use a liquid thread loosener. Soak the threads in penetrating oil and leave like so overnight for best results. Keep in mind that you may need to do repeat applications. You have to be very patient with this method but it does save you a lot of elbow grease from having to drill out a broken bolt.
Penetrating oil is of great help when it comes to reducing the torque needed for overcoming the bond of rusted bolts. Once you have soaked the bolts for enough time, use a breaker bar to pull them out with minimum effort.
Method 3. Heating And Cooling
This is an efficient way to remove the rusted exhaust bolts. You just need to heat up the rusted exhaust bolts. Then you need to cool them to the highest degree so that they expand and then contract. This should loosen the tight rusted bolts by breaking the rust or melt the compound that is making it so tightly held. After that, you should be able to easily take it off with simple tools. The heating technique is required all the more if the nuts are bonded to the exhaust bolts.
These days, cars come with a high amount of plastic that might melt and catch fire during this procedure if you aren’t vigilant. You could use a spotter to look out for flames or smoke. Moreover, you can also use the fireproof welder’s blankets to protect various parts of the car and the surface paint from fire.
Another tip is to use a small oxy-acetylene tip so that you can concentrate the flame’s heat in a narrow region. However, using an inexpensive hardware store hand-held propane torch for this will also do the job.
Note: Make sure that you clean off the penetrating oil first before applying flame to the system. Also, do wear protective glasses and gloves while working with flame.
Method 4. Generating More Force
You can use a breaker bar or a long-handled ratchet to generate more leverage to get the bolts off. This needs to be done very attentively as you never know when you might break the bolt accidentally. Use steady pressure and if you notice the tension becoming soft or rubbery, that means you are either stripping the threads or breaking the bolt.
Note: Please wear padded mechanics gloves to reduce the chances of skinning your knuckles.
Method 5. Putting Cuts On The Rusted Exhaust Bolts
Simply mark some cutouts on the rusted and stuck bolts and then hit them with appropriate force. This will remove the rusted exhaust bolts quickly since you have already split the bolt into pieces which reduces tension in it. This makes it easier for you to remove and rotate the bolts.
Method 6. Drill it Out
If none of the above methods work, you are left with no choice but to drill out the rusted exhaust bolts. Clean the area before starting to drill it out. This technique is usually applied when the exhaust bolts are stripped off besides being rusted. It is quite powerful and so you should save it as a last resort. If this too doesn’t work, then you’ll have to bring in an impact gun.
You can check out our list for Top 5 Best Paint For Rusty Frame.
Final Words
That was all about how to remove rusted exhaust bolts. We hope you have understood how to get rid of stubborn stuck automobile bolts. Try the above methods one by one to get rid of those inflexible exhaust bolts. While doing so, you need to keep in mind to not hurt yourself. Make sure you wear protective gear as and when required. Also, use the right tools to save yourself the extra and unnecessary effort.
