Watch out for these, guys. The rearward one that goes through the Lower Control Arm, subframe, and on up into the body.
Wife's HHR flunked state inspection for busted rubber bushings back there. Put my impact on the bolt, no go. Put a 5 foot cheater & pipe, criick, criick, the captive nut broke out of its cage and was spinning up there.
Access is nasty. Pop the tie rod ends and turn the wheel to suck as much into the rack as possible. Loosen the swaybar and bust its end links. (Removing the sway bar requires lowering the subframe, something that can't be done with stuck bolts
)
This will buy enough space to get in with a sawzall and 9" blade. 6" blades are just a hair too short. I burnt through eight blades on this project. YMMV. Cut yourself an access flap through the "box" that holds the captive nut. It's just spot welded in there and "not that structural". Feel with your fingers to get a feel for how high the nut is; it's around 1.25 inches up from the top of the subframe.
On my driver's side (which is worse for access) the LCA bushing seized to the bolt. So I cut through the bolt at the bottom and top of said bushing. It was also stuck to the captive nut, and the whole shebang was too tall to pop up, over, and out. There's an extra inch of bolt thread above the captive nut; get in there and sawzall that off as well as what's left of the stamped steel "cage". You should have your bolt in enough small pieces to get them out.
Passenger side stewed in PB blaster, a new squirt a day for a week. No dice, it still spun the nut the same way. At least this has gobs of space to work in.
Unrelated: the ball joint pinch bolt is steel inside an aluminum knuckle. Lots of white corrosion on the threads. Got slathered in anti-sieze. New LCA bolts, of course, got tons of antisieze.
Would it be prudent to pull these bolts on your Cobalt/ HHR/ whatever and antisieze them up ahead of time? If they don't come loose with a 2-foot breaker bar, I say nope, nope, nope!
And if you have any front end work planned on these heaps, plan some extra time.
Wife's HHR flunked state inspection for busted rubber bushings back there. Put my impact on the bolt, no go. Put a 5 foot cheater & pipe, criick, criick, the captive nut broke out of its cage and was spinning up there.
Access is nasty. Pop the tie rod ends and turn the wheel to suck as much into the rack as possible. Loosen the swaybar and bust its end links. (Removing the sway bar requires lowering the subframe, something that can't be done with stuck bolts
This will buy enough space to get in with a sawzall and 9" blade. 6" blades are just a hair too short. I burnt through eight blades on this project. YMMV. Cut yourself an access flap through the "box" that holds the captive nut. It's just spot welded in there and "not that structural". Feel with your fingers to get a feel for how high the nut is; it's around 1.25 inches up from the top of the subframe.
On my driver's side (which is worse for access) the LCA bushing seized to the bolt. So I cut through the bolt at the bottom and top of said bushing. It was also stuck to the captive nut, and the whole shebang was too tall to pop up, over, and out. There's an extra inch of bolt thread above the captive nut; get in there and sawzall that off as well as what's left of the stamped steel "cage". You should have your bolt in enough small pieces to get them out.
Passenger side stewed in PB blaster, a new squirt a day for a week. No dice, it still spun the nut the same way. At least this has gobs of space to work in.
Unrelated: the ball joint pinch bolt is steel inside an aluminum knuckle. Lots of white corrosion on the threads. Got slathered in anti-sieze. New LCA bolts, of course, got tons of antisieze.
Would it be prudent to pull these bolts on your Cobalt/ HHR/ whatever and antisieze them up ahead of time? If they don't come loose with a 2-foot breaker bar, I say nope, nope, nope!
And if you have any front end work planned on these heaps, plan some extra time.
