As the header says, I am in the process of removing the EGR to give it a clean, the 2 accessible bolts have come out easily, the third, the inaccessible has a stripped head, probably why the EGR has not been touched in the lifetime of the car. I have removed as many bits and bobs as I can think of (EGR pipe, exhaust mounting etc.)and am now resorting to trying an easy-out with a socket knocked onto it to try and force the bolt out, so far with limited success. I assume the prescribed way is "remove engine as per chapter 4" and have a go then, something I am reluctant to do for obvious reasons.

You may say, just leave the EGR in situ and leave it be, the problem is that at some point something will happen at an inconvenient time and the I will still have to get the blessed thing out, and it would annoy me leaving it as is.

Is there anyone who can suggest a new approach to remove the stubborn bolt, the EGR moves a bit sideways so I might be able to utilise that to increase the rotational force once I get the easy-out to bite properly.

Will

Not sure if it would help but could you remove the dog bone bracket/bush under engine and perhaps gearbox support and support engine. It would allow you to pull engine forward a bit to get more access. I take it its an allen key headed bolt. Soak it in penetrating oil etc as well.

Alasdair

Success, I managed to get the offending bolt out with the home made bodge, a long-ish easy-out filed to size, 5.5mm long socket glued on with Araldite and a ratchet, usinng the EGR and the ratchet together provided the force required to get it out, wohoo.

If anyone ever needs to borrow the tool let me know, it will go into my box of useful things and is freely available to memebers.

Now for finding a replacement bolt..

Alasdair, thanks for the suggestion, wasn't needed in the end.

as an aside, can I change the header to add (solved)?

Well done. I have a few bits and pieces created kicking about. Have a cheap socket set that gets welded and abused for exactly the same reasons. Best bit I bought was a flexi extension bar for those nuts and bolts that you cant quite get to