I got under my 82 Camaro Coupe today to hook up the tranny cooler lines, and noticed that on the passenger's side, there is a bolt missing on the A-arm bracket. The driver's side has just the one bolt underneath, but the pass. side doesn't, and inside the subframe, there is a threaded metal cylinder, but the bolt has obviously been missing for quite some time, b/c the threads are hardly visible through the rust. I've driven it over 5000 miles like this apparently, and haven't had a problem with alignment or funny noises or shaking, nothing.

Is this just a "I'll worry about it when the car's running again" or a "The car is not moving anywhere until this goes back in" kinda bolt?

Thanks for any help

 

Take a pic, I can't tell what bolt you're talking about for sure; but it sounds like it's in the "Park the car until you fix it" category.

Things like that have a tendency to work just fine until some sudden situation arises, and then fail without warning some way (parts fall off or whatever) and cause a catastrophe. And that could involve total loss of control of the car, injury or death, complete destruction of the car and others on the road, etc. It might be competely benign, but until you know for sure what it is, it's not a risk worth taking.

 

Take a pic and someone will give you a definite answer for sure.

 

a pic will help this out alot