Had a nightmare with a hood hinge replacement last Tuesday

I was working on a 2014 Ford Fusion in my shop near Atlanta. The customer wanted a new hood and hinges after a minor front-end hit. But those factory hinge bolts... they were seized up something terrible. I spent 3 hours trying to get the driver side bolt out with heat and PB Blaster. Finally had to drill it out and re-tap the hole. Has anyone else run into these Fusion hinges being a total pain? Any tips for next time?

2 comments

2 Comments

jenniferwells20d ago

Oh man, you are NOT alone on this one. Those 2014 Fusion hinge bolts are the WORST. Had a blue one come through a few months back and the passenger side bolt basically became one with the metal. Cranked on it for two hours, heat wrench, liquid wrench, even cussed at it in three different languages. Finally had to cut the bolt head clean off with a grinder and then spend another hour extracting the leftover threaded part. The whole job turned into a six hour mess for something that shoulda taken forty five minutes. Next time I'm telling the customer straight up that we're just cutting those bolts from the jump and replacing with new hardware.

brookefox20d ago

Did you try an impact screwdriver on those? I had a similar fight with a Subaru once and ended up just replacing the whole hinge assembly after rounding one off.