Spent 2 hours fighting a rusted bolt on a Ford Focus... ended up using a torch for 30 seconds

I was trying to get a lower control arm bolt out of a 2012 Ford Focus last Tuesday. That thing was so seized I went through 3 cans of PB Blaster and snapped a breaker bar. After welding a nut onto it and still getting nothing, I finally broke down and grabbed my propane torch. Heated it for maybe 30 seconds and it came right out with a regular ratchet. Felt like a total idiot for wasting all that time. Anyone else have a job where the simple fix took forever to figure out?

3 comments

3 Comments

gibson.elizabeth1mo agoMost Upvoted

Honestly, the trick nobody talks about is how heat works differently than oil on rust. @the_jamie is right that fire is faster, but I think people overlook that PB Blaster actually needs time to soak in and breaking it before that just makes the seizure worse. Ngl, I've done the same thing where I rush into the brute force method instead of just letting the torch do its thing.

verar212mo ago

Dang, three cans of PB Blaster? That's a lot of penetrating oil for one bolt. I guess sometimes the heat just breaks that rust bond way better than any spray ever could. Makes you wonder why we don't just grab the torch first, right?

the_jamie2mo ago

Nah, fire is way faster every time.