How are roof rail nuts/thread secured?

RON8O · Jan 19, 2019

I’ve got a troubled bolt broken off inside one of these roof rail nuts (what are these called anyway?) and it’s not budging, even after quite a bit of work with various bolt extractors. I’m wondering if it would be easier to replace this nut, take it to a shop and have them cut it off and weld a new one on, or possibly drill this out and rethread it.

Anyone know how these things are secured to the roof? I can only see a bunch of softish substance surrounding it, which I believe is to prevent leakage to the interior.

Any tips are appreciated,
Ron

Schlepper · Jan 19, 2019

Drill out the bolt and retap it.

avslash · Jan 20, 2019

Schlepper said:
Drill out the bolt and retap it.

If a broken bolt extractor won't get it out, this is what I would do.

RON8O · Jan 20, 2019

Thanks for the feedback!

Frank8 · Jan 21, 2019

Try penetrating oil first. Put a few drops in every day for a week or two. Patience is necessary for penetrating oil!

I use Kroil penetrating oil. It’s the best stuff I’ve ever found.

If you can get purchase with an extractor it’s only the rust and crud holding it in and the Kroil will deal with it.

johnnwalters · Jan 25, 2019

Hey, I may be too late on this but were you only removing the trim piece to put on a roof rack? In that case those original pieces were plastic and can be pulled out with tweezers. If not then go through the steps above.

Pfunk951 · Jan 26, 2019

I broke off a bolt in one of these.. CAREFULLY drill it out with an opposite direction drill bit, mine came out about halfway down. PB blaster the hell out of it, let it sit, and get drilling..

You can have someone cut it out and replace it, but I think that's a last option.. These channels get a lot of rain, and if you start getting rust up there things are going to go downhill fast..

Good Luck!!

RON8O · Jan 27, 2019

johnnwalters said:
Hey, I may be too late on this but were you only removing the trim piece to put on a roof rack? In that case those original pieces were plastic and can be pulled out with tweezers. If not then go through the steps above.

It’s not the plastic plugs that are the issue now, but mine were so sun damaged that only a few of them came out without breaking. I tried unscrewing them, etc, but they were just too brittle. After a lot of messing with them, I did finally get the plastic pieces out.

fishjump · Jan 29, 2019

Yes drill it out. I've changed out my rails several times and always add a little lithium grease when re-installing the bolts.

toddjb122 · Jan 29, 2019

fishjump said:
Yes drill it out. I've changed out my rails several times and always add a little lithium grease when re-installing the bolts.

That's a great idea. I wish I would have done that when installing my rack!

How are roof rail nuts/thread secured?

RON8O

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