You know it's going to be a long day when one of the throttle body bolts strips out. 4" of clearance just isn't enough room to use most of my applicable weapons. Long story short, started at 8:30, ended about 8:30....all because of ONE F'IN BOLT!!

Props to the folks who posted the FAQ writeups. They were most helpful.

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How did you end up getting it out?

Sometime you get lucky and one of the torx will correspond in size to the stripped out allen. Just used this trick a week ago when my bolt outs wouldn't fit in a tight space.

not enough room for a bolt out without sawing off the throttle cable bracket.

tried the torx...no luck.

tried a tripple square...no room to hammer it in. could't pry it in.

between sizes on screw extractor; no room to drill the head out to a little larger size for the next size up. (going back to Harbor Freight for a 90 degree drill adaptor was on our list of options.)

we ended up drilling a hole through the head, 90 degrees to the bolt axis, and screwing a grade 8 screw into it. popped the bolt loose with a pair of pliers on the mess. then had a dickens of a time breakig off the screw to allow the bolt to spin out of the hole.

I was working with the young feller who recently bought my 1996 A4 12V. I'd told him to look me up if he had any problems passing emissions or safety inspection. His EGR system was plugged but not throwing any codes in the ECU. Looks like I've converted another DIYer to the cause.

And, in retrospect, I did get in a couple breaks for trips to the hardware store and Home Depot...and a 3 hour break to cleanup attend the wife's company picnic.

When I had my tires mounted a few months back, the shop must have cross-threaded the lug bolt. After trying to loosen that thing to do a brake job, the bolt stripped! Found that bolt-out kit online and went to my local Sears. Bada bing, that bolt came right out! Great invention.

If there's room, my usual tool of choice on allen bolts is my air chisel. Again....if there's room. I get the chisel to bit into the bolt head and make a good "v" in it, then reposition the chisel bit at an angle in the "V" and surgically apply power to begin socking and rotating the bolt.

You're drilling through the side was pretty ingenious!!

THAT CAR IS CURSED! j/k ;-)