What Can I Do About a Broken Oil Filter Cover Bolt?

What happens when you’re doing a Honda TRX400 oil change and the long bolt for the oil filter cover snaps? The bad news is you’re going to have to pull out the case to get it fixed.

Partzilla’s Honda ATV expert John Talley hosts live Q&A sessions on our YouTube channel every Friday at 3pm Eastern. In this session, John was asked what to do about a broken oil filter cover bolt on a 2007 Honda TRX 400EX ATV.

Honda TRX400 oil filter cover bolt

Broken Honda ATV Oil Filter Cover Bolt Q&A

I did an oil change on my 07 Honda 400EX today, and when reinstalling the oil filter cover, the long bolt wouldn’t tighten up and then it snapped. I was using a 3/8th torque wrench set to 7 foot-pounds. Any idea what I should do? Why did the bolt keep spinning and then snap?

John Talley: Alright, well here’s going to be the real trick. More than likely there were a couple of threads either down in the engine case, or on the end of your bolt that were galled. Here’s the bad part. Yeah, you can Time Sert it, but you’re going to have to pull that outer cover. Those threads — because you told me it was the long bolt — they’re going to be way up in there, and you’ve got to be at a flush surface to get to that. So unfortunately that’s what you’re going to have to do. We’ve got a couple of different videos that show you how to do Time Sert installations, but on yours, you’re going to have to dig a little bit deeper into the engine, pull off your clutch and everything else, and then you’re going to be down into the inner case. You have to get that outer case pulled off it, unfortunately. Sorry dude.