I was replacing my rear brake pads and rotors, and I stripped the hex bolt on the rear caliper. Does anyone have any advice on getting that thing out?

 

i thought i stripped mine too, hammer the 8mm allen into. otherwise see if you can get a good hold of it with locking pliers. your last resort is to weld a socket to it.

 

I'll try hammering the 8mm in tomorrow. Does anyone know if Audi dealers keep some of those on hand?

 

Oh, and do you think it would help to spray it with something to loosen the bolt or, is it a waste of time?

 

o ya i forgot to say use pb blaster. spray the crap out of it. o and for the bolt, get the specs from the dealership and get a bolt from somewhere else with a hex head. do the same thing for both sides, trust me you'll save alot of time later on down the road. and get new caliper pins. you should flush your brake system while you're in there too. i'll post back when i think of more. go out right now and spray the bolt with pb blaster and then do it 2morrow again. then go get the new bolts, come back and spray more, then go get a beer and come back out spray some more than hammer the allen on.

 

Buy replacements to those that are a hex head, not allen. It was retarded of audi to do that. I had to use a socket that was just slightly bigget than 8mm (one that took off porsche 911 head bolts) and a lot of heat.

 

Yep, and if none of that works, you can use a grinder (such as a grinding bit on a Dremel) and grind opposing sides flat so you can get a wrench onto the head and try it that way. For extra torque, put a combination wrench on it, and hook another one through the "socket" end of the wrench and pull that way, to increase the lever arm effect and put more torque onto the wrench to loosen it.

PS Hiwords - as soon as I saw the thread title and that it was a rear brake issue, I had a feeling you'd chime in

 

Crosswire, which bolt are you talking about? The bolt that holds the caliper to the carrier or the bolt that holds the carrier to the spindle?

 

Not to speak for him, but chances are it's the one holding the carrier to the spindle. On Hiwords' car, I had my whole 240lbs hanging off the ground from the wrench trying to break that mother f'er loose.

 

If that's the bolt, then his choices are limited. Thehammer-onsockets that Sear's sells might work. But, he'll be getting one more chance at it with one of those. Better part of valor might be to put it back together and get it to someone with a lift, torch and an impact.