Sugggestions for broken body studs
 

Hi guys,

Does anyone have any bright ideas for attaching the engine bay heat shields when the body studs have broken off? My car lived by the seaside I think and so mixed metal corrosion has had its way anywhere there is something steel attached to the body. Several of the studs had already fallen off when I got it, and the first one I waved a socket at also just fell off so I stopped messing with them!

Audi obviously used studs on the alloy body for a reason, instead of plastic inserts like the A4 and A6 have. The first pic is the hollow frame rail so a nutsert would work there (since it already has plenty in it for other things) but the second one is double-skinned so no drilling holes there. The only other solution I can think of is gluing the heat shields on with sikaflex :rolleyes:

http://www.corradov8.com/pics/s8/s8_stud2.jpg

http://www.corradov8.com/pics/s8/s8_stud1.jpg

Any suggestions?

For comedy value, every one of the steel clips holding the fuel lines just crumbles to dust when you touch it too :mad: Only £8 each from TPS...

Rather than drilling and making things worse I would probably flush the broken piece of, prime and paint it to seal it then bond a fastener on in place using two part epoxy

http://www.ecfibreglasssupplies.co.u...el-thread.aspx

Ooh I'm liking that! Great idea thanks :)

This came from East Coast Fibreglass :)

http://www.corradov8.com/pics/s8/glue.jpg

Studs as suggested, and a two-part acrylic structural adhesive recommended by East Coast.

So, started by grinding off the broken studs and using tape to mark the space for the new one. I decided to apply the glue straight to bare metal, on the grounds that it will stick to aluminium better than it sticks to paint, and better than paint sticks to aluminium.

http://www.corradov8.com/pics/s8/stud1.jpg

http://www.corradov8.com/pics/s8/stud2.jpg

There are four broken under the bonnet, and this one up in the wheel arch. Also spot the new nutsert - someone had snapped off a bolt in it and just mashed it up so I cut the old one out and stuck in a replacement.

http://www.corradov8.com/pics/s8/stud3.jpg

Apply the adhesive and smoosh in to the holes on the studs. Its quite 'grabby' so I didn't need to support the studs while it dried - they just sat there, even the upside down one in the wheel arch.

http://www.corradov8.com/pics/s8/stud4.jpg
http://www.corradov8.com/pics/s8/stud5.jpg
http://www.corradov8.com/pics/s8/stud6.jpg

Painted over them with some touch-up paint to make sure no bare aluminium was left exposed. It was all covered by glue tbh, but they look less obvious like this too. Not that you'll see them when the heat shields are back on.

http://www.corradov8.com/pics/s8/stud7.jpg
http://www.corradov8.com/pics/s8/stud8.jpg
http://www.corradov8.com/pics/s8/stud9.jpg

Shear strength of this adhesive is 20N/mm2, so with 30mm square studs they can theoretically support 1.8 tons :eek: They should be fine to support a few grams of heat shield then, which go back on tomorrow.

Thanks Delboy for the idea +++

No problem fella, looks like a good repair you done there and if people didn't know better it could pass for factory.

Great solution suggestion from DEL and thanks for writing up the repair with pictures - I've added this to the repair sticky for this section +++

Cool :) Not a fella btw ;)

Love stuff like this. Very helpful and great resource for people in the future.

Glad it all came together well.

:o:ROFL: not the most observant me, I am a fella so please forgive me.