Stabiliser Bolt!

[Guest Paul L]

Mrs. L arrived home tonight convinced something serious had 'gone' on our Gal (1997 2.0 GLXi - 92K miles). As soon as I turned the engine over and started it I knew what was wrong! I could 'feel' the engine torque rotating on it's mountings. Diagnosis? Engine mounts or stabiliser.

 

I started with the easier option, stripped the sump pan off and had a quick look at the stabiliser and sure enough, it was loose at the gearbox interface. Not a major problem, just buy a replacement and fit it. So, thinking ahead I decided to strip the 'knackered' stabiliser off to take with me to the local Ford dealership.

 

When I came to remove the front bolt, it rotated freely in the hole and I was able to pull it straight out. Damn thing had sheared off leaving it's other half in the hole. :ph34r: Again, no big deal, I'll just take it into work tomorrow and get one of the lads to extract it or, failing that, drill the stub out. One way or the other, it is coming out!

 

Anyone else had this problem?

[Guest chrisH]

Yep, has happened to me twice.

 

first time around i didnt have the means or know how to extract the snapped bolt from the engine stabiliser bar so bought a new bolt and arm and had them fitted with in 1/2 hour. I thought this would last but oh no. About 14 months later it did it again, luckily i already had a spare bar (from the first time, and had removed the stub) so it was just a matter of getting a new bolt, i now have both spares for this part, waiting for it to go again.

 

Not too much of a problem unless the engine has shook around a lot and damaged other parts near by. when it went the first time I thought something serious had happened.

[Guest vr6galaxy]

Yep! had the same thing go twice now :ph34r: first time it happened the extra movement took out one of the AC pipes :( second time it wasnt as drastic! but both time it was just the bolt on the gear boxend sheared B)