Read this guide if your battery terminal bolt breaks!

a11y

Lifer
 Central Scotland
I managed to shear off the bolt that secures the positive battery lead onto the terminal today - it'd been tight in both directions for a while and today it just went...

Being a weekend and no dealerships open, searching online produced some bad news: it seems BMW don't sell the bolt seperately but want to relieve you of much more £££ to buy it as part of a new cable. Info was taken from THIS THREAD on another forum. There's a picture of the bolt in question on that link.

So, rather than chance it with Halfords who I doubt would have it anyway, I modified my sheared bolt as follows:
- cut the bolt stem off with a dremel flush with the bottom
- drill a hole through the bottom piece
- stick a similarly sized nut/bolt on it

Like this:

2011-04-02 (6) by Ally Mitchell, on Flickr

2011-04-02 (7) by Ally Mitchell, on Flickr

Now fitted and seems to be just as secure as before :)

Total cost: £0, plus a burnt finger and thumb after underestimating the heat produced by a Dremmel :oops:
a11y
 
PawnSacrifice said:
Good fix. Good info. Hope to hell I never need it :P
I hope nobody ever needs it but it seems to be a fairly common failure on BMWs if anyone's frequently disconnecting their battery. Damn BMW and their unique parts!
 
I know this thread dried up a long time ago, but this happened to me this week at a most awkward time - these bolts are on e-bay, and I believe are also specific on some Ford models... Bought two for about £12.
 
Back
Top Bottom