Thread: Broken throttle body bolt, help!

Originally Posted by 04gtgp

Hey guys, I was cleaning my throttle body and maf on my 04 grand prix gt. Everything went well until i was tightening the bolts back up on the throttle body and broke the head off of one of the bottom bolts. Unfortunately there are no threads sticking out and it broke off flush. I went ahead and put the maf back on and started car and there are no leaks from bottom of tb. My question is will it be okay until i have to clean the tb again? Just want to make sure its not something i need to fix right away. The tb cleaning did however take care of the car dying upon starting and eliminated the "give it a bit of gas" problem everytime i started it ! Thanks guys!

if the bolt broke off nice and flush, i'd drill the center of the bolt (use a good center punch first) and use a easy out, then replace the bolt. it may not be leaking now, but could later on.

i always get a bolt good and snug, then give it a 1/2 turn at most to seal the deal. i haven't snapped a bolt going in for years now.

now not snapping bolts on the way out, that's another story lol.

If its not making a seal, you're either going to have a vac leak due to unmetered air entering behind the MAF or you're going to lose coolant. Both of which are bad.

If you know what you're doing with an easy out, do what scotty said, if you don't know what you're doing, take it somewhere and have it done for you. If you attempt it and fail, that's going to make it a pain for whoever has to try to fix the mistake.

You're missing the point. It may SEEM like its sealed, buy you are opening yourself up for a host of new problems if you do not fix it. You came here to ask for advice, and if you don't take the advice given, then its on you.

yes its ok to drive it like with a broken bolt, but do get it fixed, chances are it will fail one way or another in the future.

Ever try a left handed drill bit? I have a small set and sometimes the bit itself will bring the broken bolt out.