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850 Posts
You are going to need heat and a serious 1/2" air-driven impact gun like the others have mentioned.
I've worked on two Elements at the shop so far with seized rear lower strut bolts (one was my own :lol
and I had to heat them up good to free them. Bear in mind I also have a two-month old Chicago Pneumatic 7750 1/2" impact gun with 800 lb-ft of torque and it worked pretty good to free up those bolts.
Just prior to reassembly, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND lubricating all metal-to-metal contact areas with a quality anti-seize paste on any and all bolts you remove on your Element that are or may be exposed to the elements (no pun intended LOL). I actually went so far as to spend an entire Saturday afternoon and evening at work after hours removing every single nut and bolt from the bottom of my Element, lubricating them all with moly paste, then putting them back in (loading the suspension where required of course) and then had the Element aligned after.
After the work it took to free mine and the one customer's rear strut bolts, I didn't want to take any chances with mine.
P.S. Don't heat up the bolt so it starts to turn red, you just want it really really hot to the point you can't even touch it at all.
I've worked on two Elements at the shop so far with seized rear lower strut bolts (one was my own :lol
and I had to heat them up good to free them. Bear in mind I also have a two-month old Chicago Pneumatic 7750 1/2" impact gun with 800 lb-ft of torque and it worked pretty good to free up those bolts.Just prior to reassembly, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND lubricating all metal-to-metal contact areas with a quality anti-seize paste on any and all bolts you remove on your Element that are or may be exposed to the elements (no pun intended LOL). I actually went so far as to spend an entire Saturday afternoon and evening at work after hours removing every single nut and bolt from the bottom of my Element, lubricating them all with moly paste, then putting them back in (loading the suspension where required of course) and then had the Element aligned after.
After the work it took to free mine and the one customer's rear strut bolts, I didn't want to take any chances with mine
.P.S. Don't heat up the bolt so it starts to turn red, you just want it really really hot to the point you can't even touch it at all.
