help! screw thread rounded off!

[titcharoony]

changing the thermostat as i think its opening too early and not allowing the engine to get to temperature properly. however the screws on the housing are pretty much rounded off so i cant get screwdriver/torx screw bit/anything in there that wont round it off further. they seem pretty seized with the cold aswell. any tips for getting them off? lil ****ers.

only thing i can think is maybe try and grip round the edge with a set of mole grips, dont wanna knacker them tho.......

[Wobba]

I've destroyed many of these in my time. Crap torx bolts and shitty alloy = rounding off is likely!

Sorry to say the only way I have got them off is drilling off the head of the bolt. The thread only goes into the head itself, not the housing, so you can just pull the housing off after and get the bolt off with mole grips. Will need a new bolt.

Can try mole grips on the outside, there is a tiny lip, doubt it will work though.

You can try belting in the next size up torx as well or cutting a groove in and using a fat flat headed screwdriver on it...

[Wobba]

I used some pro-bolt high tensile alloy jobbies on mine:

[MatBrown]

I have a spare screw mate.


Mat.

[Laine_16v]

Id personally buy a pack of M6 cap head screws of ebay, measure them (i expect they will be about 35mm long). SOmething like this
http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_nkw=m...c0.m270.l1313#

[titcharoony]

is it ok just to drill straight through the middle of them then?

[MatBrown]

Yeah, just drill or grind the head off, once the housing is removed get some mole grips on the remaining stud and it will come out no probs.


Mat.

[schakal]

get a dremel and grind the head off !
and use hex bolts like everyone else on the planet.

[titcharoony]

get a dremel and grind the head off !
and use hex bolts like everyone else on the planet.

didnt realise hex bolts were one of your buttons!

[schakal]

:D