Wow, changed my shocks last week and 2 rear went fine and so did front passenger one but the bolt snapped on the drivers side. Brought it to goodyear dealer by my house and they couldn't remove it. When they called me they said the mechanic heated it up so much with a torch that he started to melt the boot on the axle. They charged me nothing for doing nothing but told me to fix it I had to replace lower control arm. $400 for control arm and $285 labor about $10 for bolt. I picked up truck and took it to my in laws trans shop to look at it and to my surprise Goodyear melted the axle boot half off and grease was every where I called the ******* and they said it's only been 3 days that I can just replace boot and it would be fine. Would have been nice if they told me they fried it and not that it started melting. My in laws got the bolt out replaced axle all for free thank god. Just Venting and by the way if your shock bolt breaks it is actually about $38 at dealer so soak that bitch with wd or something. I went from Bilstiens to Rancho Rs5000 and I prefer Rancho. I had Bilstien HD for about 4yrs and were too stiff for me, Rancho at least give a little.

 

or use a set of torches and a couple of wet rags over anything rubber-especially axle boots.... lol and thats why i do stuff my self!

 

Are you talking about the two lower 13mm bolts that hold the bottom of the shock to the lower control arm?

 

On my 02 there is one bolt that holds shock on lower control arm. Mine snapped when I went to changed shock. Its a 21mm bolt.

 

Ive had the same misfortune you have had with the lower shock mount bolt. Ive broken both bolts when going to remove them and change shocks, crappy design if you ask me, couldnt use and extractor to get them out, tried heating, tried drilling out and re tapping, ended up buy two used lower control arms from ebay for 90 bucks each and replacing myself.

 

Ah, wow. Totally different design that mine

 

ya when i replaces mine they were rusted on pretty good, but my dad still had some penetrating oil from the good'ol days

 

I had the opposite problem when I put my ranchos on recently. I heard a rattling sound while driving so I pulled over and the right one was totally unthreaded and just sitting in the hole. I almost lost the dumb thing. I ended up putting some loctite on them to help keep them from walking their way out. Now I am wondering if I will ever be able to get them out again.

 

antiseize works great for keeping shock bolts from seizing up and breaking

 

I dont think I have ever had a problem with a mounting/ contact point on anything rusting to the point of breaking or non removal.