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Stripped (Badly) the giant t50 torx bolt holding the steering wheel to the column. Any ideas besides taking it to a dealership?.. which is currently my next option. Bolt is still pretty tight but 2-3 full rotations away from the factory torque spec
Cut a wide rubber band and wedge it into the bolt with your torx bit and try to loosen it that way, have a helper to try holding the bit square to the bolt and use a long bar for the best leverage.
I would drill it and then fit a EZ out bolt extractor to remove it. Then replace the bolt. You can buy an adequate bolt retractor at Harbor Freight for about $20 for the set of 5 or so sizes. Good Luck.
I had this exact issue when I was replacing my wheel - FULLY rounded out the torx portion of the bolt. I carefully drilled out the center - enough that the head of the bolt came off and I was able to remove the wheel. I then carefully drilled down the center of the bolt - go as far as you can trying to keep it on center and DO NOT let the bit drift and get into any of the threads. Once thats done, I used a small butane torch - think like those pen torches to heat the bolt from the inside out, using the hole that was drilled. Spend some time doing this. Once it was hot enough, a standard bolt extractor took it out VERY easily.
I would drill it and then fit a EZ out bolt extractor to remove it. Then replace the bolt. You can buy an adequate bolt retractor at Harbor Freight for about $20 for the set of 5 or so sizes. Good Luck.
Using a Harbor Freight easy out will make your problem go from bad to worse.
So I ended up just bringing it to a trusted shop and it took them 2 hours to get it out. They used one of those fancy induction heaters and it heated up the oem loctite allowing it to spin easier. The wheel is on now and looks and feels great. Thanks for all the replies guys. I just bit the bullet and played it safe so I didn’t make my problem worse
SOS steering wheel bolt
