[eksajlee]

Long story short - I was replacing my injectors and accidentally snapped a bolt holding a bracket for Cylinder #3 and #4...

Looks like this:



I need to get to the nearby workshop to extract the bolt and replace it.
My question is - how to get there safely? It's less than 300m.

A) Unplug 2 injectors, 2 coilpacks and drive? Won't intjectors pop up due to pressure?
Tried driving it without a bracket after I've snapped the bolt to see if the bracket is that crucial (stupid me) and injector #4 popped out rumbling in my engine bay and causing missfires...

B) Take out both injectors and unplug coilpacks? Would the car even start without the pressure?

C) Any other options?

I'm so mad, typical case of small problems getting big out of sudden.

[Bimmer_Engineer]

I think you just need to call a tow truck...

[Jklad]

Why not do what you said and let us know how it works out for you

Your making this a bigger deal than it needs to be. Get a tow, or get an uber to get the tools you need to where your car is!

[eksajlee]

Originally Posted by Jklad

Why not do what you said and let us know how it works out for you

Your making this a bigger deal than it needs to be. Get a tow, or get an uber to get the tools you need to where your car is!

Towing is not an option as the car is in the underground compound too small for trucks or even vans, mr. smartass.

I've got no experience in extracting bolts, so I'll rather pay someone else to do it.

I just want to know if any of the options are viable to drive the car for literally 300m.

[msjt]

You're going to ruin the head without the injector bracket. Get it towed.

[Bimmer_Engineer]

Originally Posted by eksajlee

Towing is not an option as the car is in the underground compound too small for trucks or even vans, mr. smartass.

I don't think anyone is trying to be a smartass...you didn't explain that the car was in an underground garage...

[MysticRob]

Originally Posted by eksajlee

Towing is not an option as the car is in the underground compound too small for trucks or even vans, mr. smartass.

I've got no experience in extracting bolts, so I'll rather pay someone else to do it.

Ridiculous thread. You're ripping on people and you're the one who tried doing your own maintenance down there AND screwed it up. Watch a youtube video and figure out how to extract the bolt. Buy the tools necessary and get it done.

Or better yet, just drive it all that way and let us know how it worked out for you.

[Wolf 335]

Option 1: Drill the bolt out
Option 2: Dremel a groove in the bolt and then fit a flat head in it.
Option 3: Pay the mechanic to come there and do it for you. if its 300m away it shouldn't be a problem from him to come by.

[Jklad]

Originally Posted by eksajlee

Towing is not an option as the car is in the underground compound too small for trucks or even vans, mr. smartass.

I've got no experience in extracting bolts, so I'll rather pay someone else to do it.

I just want to know if any of the options are viable to drive the car for literally 300m.

New to the forum? Members like like to laugh at silly questions, your being too sensitive, nothing to get all butthurt over.

Next time, it will help get you a better answer if you include relevant details (like the fact that you can't get it towed due to underground garage, which is the most obvious solution)

[Milan]

Do option #2 the guy above gave you, it will come out easily. If not, flat tow the car out of the compound and then get a tow truck

[catcher22]

Maybe push it, hopefully it's all downhill on the way there. haha

[feuer]

Push, pull, have tech come onsite... Everything is better than running this engine! Also there are small tow trucks: pickup truck that was converted to tow. They lift one end of the car and pull it.

[eksajlee]

Originally Posted by Milan

Do option #2 the guy above gave you, it will come out easily. If not, flat tow the car out of the compound and then get a tow truck

Wish I could use Dremel Bolt is few mm below the head, so cutting would damage both. Also I would need to use Dremel's cut off wheel, right? There's barely any place to squeeze it in and put in parallel to the head.

I guess I will have to tow it somehow.

[feuer]

Originally Posted by eksajlee

Wish I could use Dremel Bolt is few mm below the head, so cutting would damage both. Also I would need to use Dremel's cut off wheel, right? There's barely any place to squeeze it in and put in parallel to the head.

I guess I will have to tow it somehow.

With a dremel you can drill small hole into the broken off bolt. Then put torx bit onto long extension and hammer into the hole. It will come out easy.

[Rob09msport]

Easy out literally it's a drill bit then a reverse thread bit that bites into hole you drilled and you can crank that bitch out. Rec soaking some pb blast. You could flat tow car yourself. If you were to run car with injectors out you would want to cover hole so nothing goes in cylinder also you need to replace the teflon seals now. If you have the bolt you broke depending how long it still is cause you said the piece is recessed just put it back into to idle over to shop as long as it's grabbing more than a few threads you will be fine.

[vasillalov]

This is typical. The injector bolts are steel and the head is aluminium. It is quite common to see the bolt binding and then snapping. I've been through this TWICE.

Let me stop you right now! DO NOT start the engine. You will damage injectors 3 and 4 and you WILL damage the fuel rails to them. What looks like a $1.25 damage for the broken bolt will quickly come up to minimum $600 in repairs.

As others have said, you either extract the bolt on the spot or you call a tow truck and you figure out a way to push the car up to the street level.

Also, if you decide to "Phuck it" and just drive up to the street level, your car will have almost no power at all since you will be running out on 4 cylinders out of 6. You also risk bearing damage because the crankshaft forces will be out of balance.

Final words of wisdom: when you eventually extract the snapped bolt and you end up replacing it with a new one, DO NOT overtighten it. Make sure you follow the torque specs precisely. If you overtighten the new bolt too much, the bolt will stretch and weaken further from the engine heat. This in turn will make it easier to snap again while you are driving. Not fun. Ask me how I know...

[Chris@VargasTurboTech]

Just get some buddies and push it. It's a hike, but that's what pizza and beer are for. Good luck.

[GATORB8]

I'm sure I'm late to the party here, but I highly recommend NOT using a easy out/bolt extractor. The ones I had the misfortune of using were made of tool steel creating a very hard but brittle tool. Break one (which I was able to do by hand with a tap t-handle) and you will hate yourself. Hours with $50 special order full carbide drill bits to get it out, with big risk of breaking bits or walking the hole into the head.

[Wolf 335]

Originally Posted by eksajlee

Long story short - I was replacing my injectors and accidentally snapped a bolt holding a bracket for Cylinder #3 and #4...

Any update on this?

What did you end up doing?

[eksajlee]

Thanks everyone for feedback, problem was solved few weeks ago. Thread might sounded a bit stupid with a clickbaity title, but I was genuinely interested in "what can go wrong".

Originally Posted by Wolf 335

Any update on this?

What did you end up doing?

I've bought a really small carbide drills (1,5mm and 2mm) and drilled a hole to hammer in a small torx. Took a bit of time but it worked pretty well. Had to use a normal drill as dremel couldn't even catch such a small drill bit.

Afterwards I've placed a new injector (previous one jumped out and was old anyway) and re-installed the bracket with a new bolt. This time I've used proper torque

Now the only downside is that I've got four (1-4 cyl) brand new index 11 injectors, and 5-6 cyl got index 3... Afaik they should be changed as 6 or per whole bank, but other claims that they've had 0 issues with changing even 1 injector.

Funny enough Index 3 (2008) seems to last longer than index 8 that were replaced by BMW (2012).

Car drives fine but sometimes I've got a flat spot from stand still to 1k rpm with light throttle and I'm not 100% sure if it's because of that. Joy of N53/N54 engines - something new every month

[billowusu]

Originally Posted by eksajlee

Thanks everyone for feedback, problem was solved few weeks ago. Thread might sounded a bit stupid with a clickbaity title, but I was genuinely interested in "what can go wrong".





I've bought a really small carbide drills (1,5mm and 2mm) and drilled a hole to hammer in a small torx. Took a bit of time but it worked pretty well. Had to use a normal drill as dremel couldn't even catch such a small drill bit.

Afterwards I've placed a new injector (previous one jumped out and was old anyway) and re-installed the bracket with a new bolt. This time I've used proper torque

Now the only downside is that I've got four (1-4 cyl) brand new index 11 injectors, and 5-6 cyl got index 3... Afaik they should be changed as 6 or per whole bank, but other claims that they've had 0 issues with changing even 1 injector.

Funny enough Index 3 (2008) seems to last longer than index 8 that were replaced by BMW (2012).

Car drives fine but sometimes I've got a flat spot from stand still to 1k rpm with light throttle and I'm not 100% sure if it's because of that. Joy of N53/N54 engines - something new every month

I git the same problem now