What I was hoping to do:
Replace both rotors and calipers, along with front shocks.

Where I'm at:
Both lower caliper bolts sheared off. I've tried easy outs with no success. I can't some up with my torch and will try heat. Let's presume that that plan fails.

What are my next options? New spindles? This is my DD so I need it up and running asap.

Ps: also seems like the bushing on the lower shock bolt is sized into the bushing on the icon shock was hoping to remove while I was doing the brakes. Old love thoughts on that problem.


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Wow...sounds like we share the same luck. I had pretty good luck with the fasteners when I was doing shock by hosing them down with PB-Blaster and letting them sit. Granted, I did this a couple of times in the days before I did the shock swap. However, this is some good penetrating oil.

Can you get to the back side or the "end" of the caliper bolt holes? I haven't done the front brakes yet so I don't know if they're blind holes or exit behind the rotor. Maybe juicing them up with oil and giving the back a good "smack" with a punch or cold chisel will break them loose.

Just curious....how did they break off? Were they really, really stuck and you had to jam on them with the impact or cheater bar? Maybe a previous brake job involved way, way too much thread locker. If so, heat may be your best bet.

What I was hoping to do:
Replace both rotors and calipers, along with front shocks.

Where I'm at:
Both lower caliper bolts sheared off. I've tried easy outs with no success. I can't some up with my torch and will try heat. Let's presume that that plan fails.

What are my next options? New spindles? This is my DD so I need it up and running asap.

Ps: also seems like the bushing on the lower shock bolt is sized into the bushing on the icon shock was hoping to remove while I was doing the brakes. Old love thoughts on that problem.


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Heat is probably a good bet but give PB-Blaster a chance first. It saved my butt taking my front/rear shocks loose.

Best bet I'm guessing is to pull the rotor loose and I think you'll see the ends of the sheared bolts (I don't think they're blind holes). Maybe you can give those a blast of oil then hit them with a cold chisel or punch to break them loose.

Those are pretty beefy bolts. Were they just fused in place and the impact or cheater bar just snapped them off? Any idea about the last brake job; did the bolts get super-slathered in thread locker? Heat might soften that up but you'll still need a good way to spin them. Hopefully you can get to them from the front side.

No good idea on the bottom shock mount. I don't think it's unusual for bolts to corrode up in the sleeve. Do the bolts just spin and the sleeve spins with them? You may have to surgically hack the thing apart with a saws-all or angle grinder with cutoff wheel.

Good luck!!

Bolts and sleeves spin together. I had to cut the OEMs out a couple years ago.

The holes are through. I'll try heat. I've hit them with a pb blaster like product.


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If the bolt is sufficiently large and there's enough room to maneuver, a good dimple in the edge can catch the edge of a chisel, and then use the chisel to nudge the bolt loose.

I've had some success with a drift punch doing this... but it really depends on if you have room to swing a hammer and hit the punch REALLY hard.

If you have room to do it, a small pilot hole down the middle of the broken bolt's shank could help to relieve the pressure on the threads, making it easier to extract. But it's risky because you could damage the threads.

Pictures would help.

Best luck!

try air chisel with the punch bit, drill hole in the bolt on one side so it has something to rest in and chisel away while praying it lets go.

before going to the extreme of replacing the spindles, can you maybe carefully drill out the bolts and re-tap the threads?

Duplicate threads merged.

I had this happen to me with one bolt, last summer.

I gave up getting it out, I tried air chisel and drilling it out.

I had a friend drive me to the junk yard and pulled a new spindle off a low mileage 4runner they had. They sold me the spindle and the wheel bearing for 50 bucks.

Best of Luck