Allow me to extol the virtues of Aero-Kroil

[UncleRunkle]

So I just completed the replacement of the upper control arms on my Audi. The UCA pinch bolt is a known villain in the Audi/VW community. Being a steel bolt living in an Aluminum world awash in road salt and grime, it often gets hellishly stuck. So much so that a german comany called Klann makes a $2K

extractor tool (Klann KL-0250-41 KA).

But a can of Aero-Kroil and an $8 harbor freight heat gun and a ball peen hammer got it done.

Method:
Step 1 heat the aluminum housing for about 2 minutes with highest setting of heat gun (HF says it's 1000 deg, whatever, it's hot)

Step 2 spray with aero kroil (there are several places in the aluminum housing you can shoot the kroil down into to get along the length of the bolt, I hit them all).

Step three: tap the bolt head and the housing a few times from various angles with the ball peen (don't get crazy, just enough to get some vibrations going)

Step four: (optional) drink a beer

Step five: remove bolt with a 16mm boxed end wrench and a 16mm ratchet, might need to tap it out with a flat head under the bolt head and rubber mallet, but it comes out easily, you may have to squirt a little more kroil while tapping it out.

 

[Poohbah]

Nothing more satisfying than kicking a stuck bolt's butt.

 

[UncleRunkle]

Indeed!

 

[KGMtech]

I have been spraying my 2004 Passat's pinch bolt every winter to prevent it from seizure (sounds weird eh?) but it is nice to know I have an option if my anti-seizure methods are not so effective )

 

[JHZR2]

What's to say yours was worthy of the $2k German tool? Maybe it wasn't seized badly?

 

[Astro14]

Kroil is the best of what's out there. Liquid wrench is a reasonable second.

I threw the PB'laster in the trash a few years ago. Despite all the hype, it's nowhere near as good as Kroil.

 

[Gillsy]

Originally Posted By: Astro14
Kroil is the best of what's out there. Liquid wrench is a reasonable second.

I threw the PB'laster in the trash a few years ago. Despite all the hype, it's nowhere near as good as Kroil.
What he said! ^^^^^^

 

[friendly_jacek]

wouldn't impact wrench work on that? I'm amazed how car repairs are effortless with cheap electric HF impact wrench.

 

[UncleRunkle]

I'm sure an impact would work to get the nut off, but once you get that far it is still really difficult to get the bolt out of the housing without some special sauce.

 

[Cujet]

Working in aviation, we use Kroil all the time. I'm not at all sure it lives up to it's claim of "creeping" into a millionth of an inch, but it is thin oil and does creep into tight areas.

I've discovered it works amazingly well on bicycle spokes. Spray the spoke ends on your new bike, then every year or so. They will adjust perfectly, years down the road.

 

[HerrStig]

WD 40 was designed as a corrosion preventer for missle casings and other aerospace parts, not as a lube. Other uses came later. "Water Dispersant formula 40" Kriol is good stuff.

 

[AMC]

Kroil / Aerokroil is also the best oil for air tools, especially air tools that are gummed up and not working right. I had a framing nailer and an impact gun that were not working right, the pistons on both of them would not cycle and everything I tried didn't help. Finally, I gave each one a good squirt of AeroKroil into the air inlet and waited a few minutes. After hooking the air hose back up, the pistons were instantly freed up and the tools have been working great ever since! As an added benefit, I get a nice odor of wintergreen / pine oil when I use the air tools now.

 

[Oro_O]

I did some experiments several years ago working on rebuilding some motorcycles. I used

1) kroil
2) L. Wrench
3) PB Blaster

On various different seized bolts on the same suspension/frame/etc. Worked in that order, same as Astro14 said. Kroil + heat took are of almost anything. Kroil + Heat + breaker bar has solved everything. I found Kroil MUCH better than L. Wrench, an PB about worthless - ATF worked better (and not bad on it's own, too, if you let it soak a long time).

 

[DoubleWasp]

ATF is a strong penetrant. I've worked on cars where the leaking ATF from the power steering resulted in the dismounting of the power steering pumps bolts and the pump fell off. ATF mixed with LC20 is a beast.

 

[buck91]

Originally Posted By: Cujet
...I've discovered it works amazingly well on bicycle spokes. Spray the spoke ends on your new bike, then every year or so. They will adjust perfectly, years down the road.


Just about any light weight oil should work well for this. The real solution is a good waterproof grease or even better a spokeprep before the wheelbuild! Otherwise I like Beoshield T9 as it dries to a waxy film that won't wash out.

Back to the thread topic. Never had a change to use aero-kroil (or any kroil product) before but recently picked up a can of Liquid Wrench. Going to be trying it on a fuel filter that PB didn't touch- but I'll be surprised if it doesn't require a repair end.