o2 Sensor Broken Stud. Need advice/ideas

Good afternoon all. So i'm doin a bit of long needed maintenance on my truck and decided to swap out both my o2 sensors and possibly my cats. In removing my 1st sensor(air/fuel)(pre cat) one of the studs snapped in half and the other half remained in there. Decided to remove the entire cat assembly and now i am able to see the bottom of the stud close to the edge of my headers flange. I'm able to reach my fingers to touch it and also have minimal height to access it from above.

My question is this, without having to remove the Y-pipe, what would you guys do to get it out?

I'm in no immediate rush to do it since i'm waitiing for my o2 sensors to arrive anyways but i'd just like to have it ready to bolt right up once they do arrive.

Here is a picture prior to removing anything... Let me know if you want me to snap and post a picture of it currently in case you need a visual of what i'm dealin with. (Remember, it's the bolt/stud closest to the flange) Thanks for any advice you guys can offer...

 

If you can, drill right thru the center of the broken stud,,all the way thru. Size the drill bit for whatever ez-out that needs to be used. Edit: If you have never used a ez-out,,or sets of ez-out's, do a bit of research there.

Just drilling out the stud might heat and weaken it enough to be able to be turned out with needle nose type vice grips.

You need to drill dead center,,so the "minimal working room" might necessitate removing the Y-pipe to get that right.

If it comes to the ez out,,heat is your friend around that stud. Have it all set up with the ez-out set in place already. Heat it smoking hot,,really hot,,then turn the stud OUT ONLY. Do not try to rock it back and fourth because the stud is not threaded all the way. You will just snap off the ez-out if you try to rock it back and fourth and probably loosen the ez-out.

 

Might also shoot some penetrating oil on there. You can let it stay on there over night maybe.

 

Just snapped these pics and now i'm able to notice that the threads are shredded. Now looks like i may have to tap it. Ugh!
So what would you guys think about just leaving it as is and having the sensor held down on just one side? You think i'd have a leak by doing this?

 

If you have a welder you could weld onto the broken part till it extends out then weld a bolt to it may have to do it multiple times till you get a good bite on your weld and it should come right out that's how we do broken exhaust manifold bolts

 

Now that you can reach inside the pipe,,mount up your sensor and use a bolt with a exterior toothed lock washer and nut on the top/outside. I would put the bolt head inside the pipe, with the washer and nut outside.

Not the best, but better than leaving one side loose.

You could crank a self tapper in there as well,,from just the outside. It would stick it for awhile.

 

cheapest way... get a new bolt and lock nut like Mod said and bolt it direct. Best way... get a i think they are 13mm nuts. Wrench size not thread size and round it on a bench grinder. then drill the hole that is fucked to the rounded size of the nut and weld the nut into that hole.

 

Don't mean to bump an old thread, but I had this same problem. Toyota part # 90116-08260 is a stud that fits and works perfectly in place of the old one, as they don't sell that part separately.

 

I have found for what it is worth to just fix things right and be done.

I pull off what ever needs to come off depending just how bad things are remove the broken bolt. Repair or replace the threads with what ever thread insert of the month is.

Worse case cut the threaded bung off and weld on a new one

 

This happened to me but I haven't fixed it yet. I just put an exhaust pipe strap over where the bolt went.

 

Jad the same problem with my 97 Tacoma. Carried it over to the muffler shop cut off the pipe drop the section out cut off the old bung and weld it in a new bung. Cost me$100 parts and labor. Mechanic said the bung was like $34 by itself

 

Well damn that sucks.

 

I guess it depends where you buy your goodies.

I paid $100.00 plus a few dollars for shipping for 10 bungs ready to weld on .

The last few times it was quicker to just replace them then fight with broken rusted studs