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First disaster - snapped hood bolt

michail71

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I was installing hood struts today and I snapped the driver's side top bolt on the hood. :(

I rechecked my torque setting several times at 17 lb. I'm not sure what went wrong. How bad is it to get this fixed? I wasn't looking at having to get a carbon fiber hood.

I also can't find the bracket anywhere. I'm going to have to check behind the wheel well.

** Edit **

The simple fix is to tig weld a stud to the old bolt. It only takes a welder a few minutes and the hood does not need to be removed.
20180606_141308a.jpg
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michail71

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Here is the torque wrench setting. I took a shot after the bolt broke just see if I had it set incorrectly.

20180526_105507a.jpg
 
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Madtel4

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Ouch! I always snap my torque wrench several times in the vice before using. Someone told me to do this a long time back and I do. Also I set the wrench to the lowest setting before I put it away. Sorry none of this helps you now keep us informed how you fix this.
Lee
 
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michail71

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I see more people strip bolts with torque wrenches than just using hand tools.

That isn't critical like head bolts or similar. Just snug it down with some blue loc-tite and your good.
I had a feeling it was getting too tight but I put too much trust in the tool. I'll take that advice once I get this fixed.
 

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16EcomustangDIB

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You have it set correctly but not all torque wrenches puts out an audible and/or distinct click all the time especially at low settings. So you have to pay real good attention when using one. That and you just probably had a defective hardware. Maybe you can drill, tap, and then helicoil it and use a bolt. Good luck with the fix.
 
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michail71

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Ouch! I always snap my torque wrench several times in the vice before using. Someone told me to do this a long time back and I do. Also I set the wrench to the lowest setting before I put it away. Sorry none of this helps you now keep us informed how you fix this.
Lee
Thanks, a learning experience for sure! I got the lower brackets on at 13 lbs but those also appear to be higher quality as they are part of the Steeda kit. I'll back them off a touch.

I have a dealer appointment on Tuesday for something different. I'll see what they say. The hood feels stable-ish.
 
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michail71

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I found a few threads related to older models but I haven't found anything on 2015+.

It's typically drill, extract, etc. with the occasional mention of jb weld, lol.
 

NoVaGT

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Why would you use a torque wrench? It's not a head bolt. A little thread-lock and tighten just enough.
 

Silver Bullitt

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Getting ready to install mine today. Sorry for your problem, but thanks for the heads up. Hopefully it turns out to be an easy fix for the dealer.
 

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Easy mistake and you probably won’t make it again. Don’t beat yourself up.

17ft/lbs is very very low. Like you don’t even need a torque wrench for that. Next time make sure you finger thread it first. Chances are you just had it cross threaded.
 

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I was installing hood struts today and I snapped the driver's side top bolt on the hood. :(

I rechecked my torque setting several times at 17 lb. I'm not sure what went wrong. How bad is it to get this fixed? I wasn't looking at having to get a carbon fiber hood.

I also can't find the bracket anywhere. I'm going to have to check behind the wheel well.
Try an easy out/screw extractor. Use a high speed tool (Dremel) to smooth the end of the broken bolt and start a pilot hole, then drill the pilot and use the extractor. Take your time and go slow. Practice with the high speed tool on something you don't care about if you have no experience. Good luck!
 
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michail71

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Getting ready to install mine today. Sorry for your problem, but thanks for the heads up. Hopefully it turns out to be an easy fix for the dealer.
It's rather easy if you don't do what I did. I put too much trust in my wrench. I was thinking it should have clicked and then it just popped.

If it's the steeda you have they have a good YouTube video.

Good luck!
 

ForYourOwnGood

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It's rather easy if you don't do what I did. I put too much trust in my wrench. I was thinking it should have clicked and then it just popped.

If it's the steeda you have they have a good YouTube video.

Good luck!
Its not that you put too much trust in the wrench, its just that you selected the wrong one for the job. You should try to keep the torque value in the mid-range of what the wrench can do if possible, too big of a wrench and you don't trip the mechanism before you break the bolt and too small you break the wrench by maxing it out. Not to mention the cheaper they are the wider the margin of error is, some of the sub-$100 models can have as much as a 10% spread.

Its an easy mistake to make, believe it or not there are whole manuals written on how to torque nuts and bolts. Calculations to do if you uses a crows foot or dog bone, if you're torquing a yielding bolt or one that must be lubricated, how to compensate for different materials, etc. For 99% of us that stuff doesn't matter but if you get into an industry where it does you'll know about it.

Not trying to patronize you or anything just explaining a bit because I've had to deal with this professionally before, most people do the similar thing and buy one big wrench to suit all needs. Good luck, hope they fix it for you quick and easy.
 
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Blue Moon

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Ouch! I always snap my torque wrench several times in the vice before using. Someone told me to do this a long time back and I do. Also I set the wrench to the lowest setting before I put it away. Sorry none of this helps you now keep us informed how you fix this.
Lee
Great advice here. That's the way the Air Force trained me use a torque wrench to work on airplanes. They also require them to be calibrated every 6 months. If you have an old torque wrench, you might want to get it checked.
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