jandreas

The outer nut needs to have a slightly smaller outside diameter (say 1mm or even less) than the inner nut otherwise your socket will just undo it.

Smitty5534

I grinded the nut down where the socket doesn't even touch the outside nut only the inside nut but some how they both still come off??

Panelhead

The top nut needs to be tightened against the lower one. Then you should be able to grab the lower one and back out the stud.

DA8

mishar, is your stop leak solution still working? I've been told by several mechanics to never use that stuff so it scares me as to if it really is a long term solution.

richard-tx

Two options. Double nut it or use loctite red and a nut. Once Loctite red is fully cured, it will not come loose unless you heat the parts

Jack88

My brother has Misha's old car and it's not leaking anything yet.

DA8

I double nutted it and it worked. One thing about the double nut there is a trick. You have to file down a smaller 10mm version of a nut for the outer nut so you can tighten that down on a unfiled 12mm inner that you hold with a wrench at an angle. Then you can reach over the outer 10mm nut to the 12mm nut below with a 12mm deep socket to back out the stud.

Used lots of penetrating oil and tapping to break the bond prior to backing out too.

Also you need to remove both studs to lift the oil pipe up enough to clear the 8mm hex bolt. It just clears that way from the coolant pipe lifted up with a bar. The coolant pipe will still rub on the bolt a little and cause the paint to scrape off and maybe a slight deformation. That is how tight it is.

Col Ken

Just did it on my 2003 S8 (4.2L 40V). Actually wasn't too bad after removing the alternator and air box. I was doing a timing belt at the same time. I do NOT remove the radiator or front end when I do a TB, not when I did this oil cooler repair. The only real issue of getting to the silly plastic water pipe is getting access to the rearmost upper bolt on the oil cooler housing. It is a shallow 8mm hex bolt. Per some other's suggestion, bought a set of long handled ball-end metric allen wrenches, then had to grind off a bit of the end taper of the wrench so that it fit deeper into the bolt. As predicted the plastic water tube was totally deteriorated. My S8 has 210K on it.

ltooz_a6_a8_q7

Very nice, can you post a picture of your modified ball-end 8mm for us to see... It does seem like you didn't have much problem doing it without touching the exhaust....

Cheers,
Louis

klouisdrk

Mishar
I just came upon the misfortune of this problem, and the dealer/stealer quoted $2500 to replace that $11 part. Needless to say, that is my spring project. Too cold on the east coast to do it now, and I don't have access to a lift.