Can’t remove control arm bolts - Help!

Hi guys, Im currently trying to remove the front control arms on my 2008 987.1 cayman and the bolts seem near impossible to remove. The nut comes off the bolt and at that point there shouldn’t be any thread and the bolt should slide out? But obviously it doesn’t. I’ve managed to move the bolt out just a little bit. Is there any tool that is good for this job or anything that I’m missing to make this easier? cheers, Austin

First, make sure the arm is at normal ride height or at least roughly parallel to the ground. Next , use a pry bar or the handle of a wrench between the bolt head and the frame to provide some leverage. That usually does it for me. Worse case: use a hammer tap it until it’s flush and then finish with the pry method. Not much room in there so watch the hammer backswing and your hands while prying. Consider replacing the nut and bolt when reassembling. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the reply! I’ve been on for around 4 hours trying to remove the bolt with different methods. It seems to be well and truly seized in there. The car is set so there is no extra load on the bushing so I don’t think that’s an issue. I’ve tried hammering it and turning it out as much as I can. The movement you can see in the photos is from turning the bolt one click at a time on a ratchet wrench. I’m wondering if I may have to use a reciprocating saw to cut through the sides of the bushing to release the arm. I’d rather have that as a last resort though!

Have you tried any penetrating lubricant? I don’t like using it around rubber but if the next step is a saw... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

soaking it over night should help what are you intending to do once you get it out ? replace it a guess heat up the control arm part to loosen it from the bolt fire ext. at the ready

Use an old Philips screw driver or a properly sized punch and hammer to drive the bolt out from the threaded end. Easy peasy....lol

Hi guys, So finally managed to get the arms off. What a pain! I did end up using a reciprocating saw to first cut the arm off just infront of the tube and then cut down through each side (Where you can see the rubber on each side.) Recip saws don't like cutting through rubber so it can take a while. You need to make sure you don't go down too far and cut the sub frame of course. It's easier to remove some of the plastic trim on the bottom of the car to get better access with the saw. I found cutting part through the bolt and then turning it a little allows the bolt to be cut more slowly and safely. The area near the mount was a bit marked up from trying to remove the arms so I used 'Zinc 182' coating around the area after fitting the new part. Obviously it doesn't blend in too well but you can't see this from the outside anyway. I may spray over this with grey/silver at some point. I also ended up using (M12x1.75x100mm) bolts instead of the (M12x1.5x95mm) bolts that are standard on the car. Much easier to find in this size in the UK. 5mm longer but they work just fine. These are high tensile, plated steel bolts too so shouldn't have any issues if they need to be removed again the future. (Bolts greased too of course.)

One tiny question - when you tightened the bolt - was the suspension "loaded" - ie - did it have the weight of the car on it? If not - the bushing in that arm is probably torqued somewhat when the car is sitting level and the suspension is not being compressed or decompressed. This can lead to short bushing life since the rubber isn't neutral (untwisted) when the vehicle is at rest. If it wasn't - it's easy enough to fix before any damage is done.

In the last photo, where the new bolt is fitted, AS987 has fitted the bolt the opposite way around to how it's fitted from the factory (i.e. the threads are pointing to the front bumper) In the original factory fitted condition the bolt is impossible to drive out with any type of punch as there simply no space or access around the inner wheel arch. It is possible to swing a hammer and hit the end of the bolt (with the nut on the end of the bolt to protect it), but as I have found out over the last 2 days this bolt is virtually impossible to budge. I've whacked it with a 2Lbs ball pain hammer, tried to squeeze it out with a G-clamp, to the point where the body of the very stout clamp has twisted, I've applied heat and penetrating oil and tried to get the bolt to turn with breaker bars and even assaulted it with my 450Nm impact gun from the front (an extension bar and universal joint allows quite good access). All to no avail, it hasn't moved a single millimetre in any direction. Looks like I'm buying a reciprocating saw!

Yeah, we jacked the hub to match the loaded position. (As close as possible anyway.) The car handles very nicely now! Interesting to note that replacing the coffin arms didn't seem to affect the tracking at all. Good spot, yes I thought it would be best to turn the bolt around for easier access in the future. I'm not sure why Porsche put these the other way? Make sure you get some nice quality blades (I'd say 2 or 3 at least) and just take your time making sure you don't nick any of the other pipes or the mounting brackets etc. Worked a charm on mine!

Im going to order a Sawzall / Reciprocating saw to do exactly the same thing! Can anyone tell me which model of saw they used? The thing is, you get a couple of different types wiht different strokes, and im not sure how much clearance is in there if i bought the larger reciprocating saw vs the smaller given one has a 13 mm / half inch stroke lenght and the other is more than an inch. Thanks!

i know this is an old thread but just ran into this myself as I’m swapping suspension bits and did not want to destroy the existing LCA’s. My nut removed relatively easily but most I could move the main LCA bolt was maybe 1mm or so, and had a lot of friction. tried a few methods but nothing worked good. so before I grabbed the sawzall, i ordered a bolt heater from amazon (roughly 150-200). They aren’t fast by any means, but after heating both ends a few minutes each, was able to take a hammer and punch and get the bolt to slide out and get the old LCA’s out. Felt a lot safer doing it that way too instead of using the sawzall or a torch close to all those radiator lines.