I was working on my car earlier today and came across a little problem that I can not seem to overcome.

I was going to open up my guage cluster and clean, when I stuck my torx bit inside and started to turn, it didn't turn. When I looked at it, and all of the torx screws are basically stripped.

How can I get these off? A small pair of pliers did nothing at all.

Thanks in Advance,
Matt

 

might sound strange, but, what year is your car. From sounds of things, it sounds like an 82-84.

Some of the "torx" bits on those cars are dummies, they are only there for looks and are molded plastic.

John

 

vice grips, duck tape, super glue, switch blade and a tommy gun are everything you need to fix a car.

In this situation vice grips, if those screws are real they will come off, though I will replace them afterwords if I were you.

If they are the fake me out plastic ones the vice grips will take those off too so be carefull

 

Yep... You guessed it right! hahaha, it's an 84!

And from the looks of it... unfortunetly they'd be the dummies!

How the hell do I get these things off?!?!?

Thanks!

 

Look straight UP under the dash pad, there is an overhang where they put screws, should be 7mm or 5.5mm bolt/screws.

There are 5 or 6 of them there

You will have to take off the Passenger side lower trim piece. (It would have a the "Performance suspension" emblem there (If applicable)). there are 3 7mm bolts holding that up from underneeth.

Then there are 2 Bolts straight up to the left of your steering column, there is a little piece that would hold the "fog/running lights" switch. There are some screws behind there.

Then on the right side of the column there are a few screws as well (straight up),
Then all the way to the right, on the left side of where you removed the passenger side panel there is one screw holding a tab.

That should be it.

It will make life easier if you remove the dash pad First.

John

(I think I should write another tech article on this one too)

 

like ok said, you don't take the dummies off. You have to be smarter than the dummies. when you want to take the dash apart, lay on your back and then start looking for bolts. Under the dash pad, under the steering column.... for some reason they made it look like bolts are everywhere, but for fashion, you can't see any of the bolts.