Questions and Answers

Jeep Wrangler Broken Bolt Q. I have a 1997 Jeep Wrangler with a 4 cylinder engine and a manual transmission, around 62,000 miles, fuel injected, ABS brakes, A/C, and power steering. I want to make a long story short. I got in a wreck and had the vehicle repaired at the local jeep dealer they sent the Jeep to the exhaust shop to fix the hole in the exhaust that was caused by the wreck, it ripped the pipe at one of the mounting brackets.

I went and picked my Jeep up today and now at idle it has a rattle underneath probably the exhaust, I will check it tomorrow, but the exhaust shop said a bolt was missing out of the exhaust manifold I looked and they were right. It is broken off in the engine not the exhaust. I was wondering what it would hurt to leave it as is, it does not seem to be leaking I will check it out tomorrow.

If there are no leaks I was going to leave it the way it is. If I need to fix it how much on the average should it run me to have the broken bolt drilled out and replaced, just in case it is broken off inside the engine and I have to fix it. As far as I know it has been broken the past two years that I have owned it and it sounds the same as it did when I bought it so what should I do?

Thank you for your help.

A. If you are sure it's not leaking, I'd leave it alone. The cost of removing the broken bolt will depend on how easy it drills out. Sometimes you can drill down the middle and use an Easy Out to remove the broken bolt. If not you have to drill it out an re-tap the hole.

I would say, if it were me doing the job, two hours max. More if I actually have to take the exhaust manifold off.