Another Car-Nundrum

Thought I'd change out the plugs on my 2007 Honda Fit. This used to be my niece's car, but she moved overseas and I bought it from her. Not a "sweetheart deal," let me tell ya.

I plan to change the coil packs as well, soon as the parts arrive. But I have the plugs now. Getting a misfire and since it's cheap to do the work myself and just buy parts, that's what I'm doing.
Famous last words.

Two of the little 10 MM bolts twisted off. The ones that hold the coil packs in place. One bolt for each coil. I had PB-blasted them, let them sit overnight, and gave them a tap tap tap with a hammer before starting in on them. The ones I was able to get to, that is. The ones that I couldn't get a hammer to are the ones that broke. Kind of interesting.

So the question of the day: How important are those bolts? The coil packs are firmly seated on the plugs, sit nice and snug. Yes, I'd like to be rolling down the road with all the parts the car came with, but that's not realistic right now. To get at those broken off bolts requires a lot of disassembly, trying to free up space between the firewall and the cylinder head, and I don't see any of that happening in the near future or possibly forever.

Some images going through my mind: JB weld, Super Glue, Duct Tape, (fill in your home-grown repair here).

Thanks for any suggestions.

Gerrit

Can you put a nut on it and weld it to remove the broken bolt? Need to disconect the battery if you weld on a car. I have put the coils on without the bolts.

Should be OK unless that screw also grounds the primary.

Red Silicone?

Is there enough left of the bolts to get a small Vise-Grip on? Heat the stub of the bolt using a small brazing tip on an acetylene torch. Get it cherry red and it will come out easily.

I always had good luck at working them
back and forth each time it goes a little
farther

I think you will be ok to just snap them on. But I would try to get the broken ones out.

My 2005 ford focus 2.3 has one hold down
bolt per coil pack and one was twisted
off when I bought it. It ran OK but
bugged me. I learned a long time ago that
drilling out broken bolts in aluminum is
a job than can very easily be messed up
badly unless the part is removed and the
job is done on the Bridgeport. I "fixed"
mine by selecting an appropriate self
drilling screw but drilling a pilot hole
for it first. 3 years ago and still going
down the road.

Ifffffffffffff its possible to get heat to the broken bolt without burning things up ????????? Iffffffffffffff you do heat
any possible remaining stud sticking up just enough to get any sort of small vice grip etc. on (easier said then done !!!)
,,,,,,,,,,,be sure to let it cool before attempting to turn them out otherwise they will just twist off grrrrrrrrrr.. While
heating a nut red usually works to remove ones that are stuck, using heat to heat a broken off bolt is a different story,
been there done that often failed lol

Where possible given enough room and enough remaining stud threads, Ive had some luck getting first a flat washer then a
nut on what's left then peening or even welding (you likely dont have enough bolt or room) it to use a socket to turn them
out........

If its too risky to use heat or there's not enough room then I for sure would use silicone and/or JB Weld etc. Hey a new
coil pack and new plugs should be good for say another 100,000 miles

Go for it

John T

How many miles on it ? I put my originals back in after getting some that were the same but likely counterfeit ? The iridium part of the tips came off making the gap too large.
2008 with 147000 miles.

Thanks for the suggestions. I've already put the new Denso plugs in and car runs fine. A little over 180K miles. Waiting for the coil packs from Rock Auto.

I've posted a pic. Getting my stick welder in there, even if there were something to weld onto would be really difficult. I'd end up welding everything BUT the broken bolt. And it's pretty well flush with the head anyway. As it is I'm doing everything by "feel," can't really see back there well enough where the broken off bolts are.

I like the idea of the red silicone but not familiar with it. Does it act as a kind of glue if I gob some on there then press the coil down onto it--at the mounting tab, of course. I'll check to see what kinds of applications it's good for.

Thanks again for the advice,

Gerrit

I would be looking at the area of the coil(s) to see if I could rig up a nylon or plastic strap over the coil to the engine.

Can you feel the miss?
Or are you just getting a code??

Our Chrysler Town & Country constantly tells us #5 cylinder misfire. Can't feel it.
The coils fire but also send a signal to the computer to confirm they fired.
Dealer diagnosis was that it is firing but the computer was not getting the confirmation 100% of the time.
So we did not bother to fix it further.

Yours likely does the same and maybe if you can't feel the misfire it is doing the same as ours.

Can you feel the miss?
Or are you just getting a code??

I can feel it and I'm getting a flashing misfire warning on dash. I need to fix this or I risk burning up the cat. So far it's running fine with the new plugs, still going to replace the coils, though.

Gerrit

(quoted from post at 07:11:39 03/05/21) I "fixed" mine by selecting an appropriate self
drilling screw but drilling a pilot hole for it first. 3 years ago and still going down the road.

Click to expand...

I like that fix. Thinking outside the box, he did .

If the coils are on the horizontal plane more than the vertical plane and there's a chance they will shake loose then I would definitely try to attach them mechanically. What about a strip of aluminum flat stock say 1/8 of an inch thick and a half inch wide with a hole in either end, you could attach it to one of the other coils with a good bolt and use it as a hold-down strap over the coils that are not attached. You would just need to find something on the far end of the coils to attach the other side...

Carl