Crankshaft harmonic balancer Bolt broke

JWR2009

MEMBER
2006 KIA SORENTO
3.5L
6 CYL
4WD
AUTOMATIC
222,000 MILES

Came out of time so I started puling the belts and pulleys off. When it came to the harmonic balancer bolt it broke 4 threads or so. So instead of removing engine and pulling crankshaft and replacing I didn't want to spend more money so I tried to drill and easy out the threads of the bolt. It was stuck enough it snapped the easy out and is now stuck. I'm thinking my only option would be to pull motor and get a new crankshaft and a lot more work than I have or wanted to do to this car. Is there any other options that I could try before I try to get crankshaft out? Also is there another way to be able to get it out other than pulling motor. Like through oil pan or anything? Thanks in advanced.

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2020 AT 4:02 PM

1 Reply

KASEKENNY

MECHANIC
18,907 POSTS

Unfortunately your only proper option is to replace the crank as the snout cannot be drilled out. The torque on the crank bolt is too high for any thread repair to hold even if you can drill it out and repair them.

I am attaching the entire process for the crank even if you don't need all of it but clearly you need to pull the motor to do this.

Sorry to not give you the news you wanted but this is what would be required.

Let us know if you have other questions. Thanks

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