Been trying to get the RL height sensor off. The bottom nut undid OK but the top one didn't turn before smashing the plastic ear off. This means (as I'm sure many are familiar) with a nut secured to a bolt, which passes through the bracket and is neatly held on the other side by a plastic bushing so you can't hold it tight enough in pliers to stop the whole lot turning.
I can't get a hacksaw in there to cut through the bolt. I don't have a file to file some flats on the round flange at the back of the bolt.

What have you guys done in similar situations?

Angle grinder....... If you can't get in to cut through the bolt, cut along the bolt lengthwise so you cut the nut in half.

Hokay. Thanks!
Shame the new sensor didn't come with any nuts :(
Time to search the new house for the Dremel...

fail :(
can't get through the nut with my tiddly Dremel Stylus. Time to invest in more tools methinks. Any recommendations for a small grinder?

I've found unless you want a cordless angle grinder, that the cheap ones (around £30) last for a couple of years before failing in some way or another. More often than not due to getting dropped on the floor or abused in some stupid way. But more than adequate for removing the odd bolt.

Cheap example https://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-ttb281grd-750w-4-angle-grinder-230-240v/93905 £29.99

and while you are at it, get a pack of these https://www.screwfix.com/p/metal-cutting-discs-4-115mm-x-1-x-22-2mm-5-pack/2757v, only 1mm thick and will slice through nuts and bolts in no time. You'll never use a hacksaw again. As they are on offer at the moment, I'm going to pick up another couple of packs tomorrow.

Purchased! Thanks folks. Now I've moved within a few hundred yards of a Screwfix, it's starting to get a little addictive :)
I just hope I can manouvre the disk up against the nut without taking out anything else along the way. However, I'll be pleased to use a grinder that stops when you let go, unlike the stylus which has a press on/press off switch. Not particularly encouraging when you've alread dropped a 10mm socket/handle and a screwdriver onto your face!

Daring types use angle grinders without the guard attached to allow getting into tighter spaces but some of us have scars on arms, indentations in thumbs and bits of metal burned into scalps that didn't used to be there before using an angle grinder.

The 1mm cutting disks are great for cutting but while you can use a 2/3 mm disk for a bit of very mild grinding (and I know it shouldn't really be done with a 2 or 3mm disk), don't try even mild grinding with a 1mm disk lol.

You'll have to excuse my total igorance. Mild Grinding to me is something you'd risk on a dance floor in the 90s....

While I'm being thick - would this https://tinyurl.com/ybqvqc8p be a suitable replacement for the nut that's about to die? it being a flanged 10mm nut. I've no idea how to measure threads but the old one came off with a 10 mm socket.

10mm headed nuts usually have 6mm thread with 1mm pitch (standard M6) but vehicle bolts aren't always standard... Gilbert would be far more likely to know what nut you need. If you have a bit of the old bolt left (which you cut) you could try cleaning up the end of it's threads and if you have any generic 10mm nuts around (which would be very likely to be standard M6) and they screw onto your bolt you'll know you just need an M6 nut with a similar flange.

I sometimes do a bit of mild grinding but don't often dance and definitely don't go on grindr...

Simon is right, you need an M6 nut. If you ferret around in your box of oddments which we all have, you may even find one of those square nuts used on roofing bolts. They are M6 thread.

Morat wrote:

Now I've moved within a few hundred yards of a Screwfix, it's starting to get a little addictive :)

My stepfather used to spend so much time there that my mother thought he'd got himself another woman......

Excellent. For £2.38 screwfix will supply 100 of the little buggers :) Flanged and carbon steel no less.
If anyone needs a set...

Lpgc wrote:

Daring types use angle grinders without the guard attached to allow getting into tighter spaces but some of us have scars on arms, indentations in thumbs and bits of metal burned into scalps that didn't used to be there before using an angle grinder.

The 1mm cutting disks are great for cutting but while you can use a 2/3 mm disk for a bit of very mild grinding (and I know it shouldn't really be done with a 2 or 3mm disk), don't try even mild grinding with a 1mm disk lol.

A few months ago we had the need to use the angle grinders larger brother - the one that takes 9" discs. We couldn't locate the one thats normally in the workshop right away, the guy that owns the land where the workshop is said don't worry I've got one. Few minutes later he appeared with one of those without any guard fitted to it. We didn't use it as we had found the one we had in the meantime, but that looked like something that could easily go wrong if the disc got stuck and exploded as they sometimes do with some quite messy consequences.

Those 1mm discs shoot out like bullets, ask me how I know,, they should be banned.

I like the 1mm disks for cutting bolts and thin bar, need to buy more as local suppliers have been out of stock for a while. Much more likely to break up if any sideways force is applied than thicker ones but wouldn't want to see them banned.

The ones I had, my neighbour bought for me, I’m guessing from lidls as that’s his favourite shop, broke up in 15mm missiles, luckily enough I wasn’t under a car with nowhere to go.
Should at least have a warning ⚠️ on them.
I’m the first to admit , I don’t wear Google’s every time, gloves, ear defenders, I want to get the job done, not faff about playing fancy dress.

The 1mm discs are also useful to cut heads in mangled bolts that you need to unscrew (not so much car related ones, I've used them in the past to undo machine screws in the casing of an ATM that someone else had mangled up the heads on, couldn't just grind them off as I needed the screw to unscrew from the tapped hole). Nowhere near as effective as the thicker ones for that.

I'm not a fan of Lidl for tools either, I've seen arc welding rods that have been no use from them, wouldn't trust their angle grinding discs here either.

So what are you doing cutting into an ATM? I thought the usual method was to ram raid the location and then open it with a plasma cutter......

Err so.. if I use the 1mm disk to try and cut through a 10mm bolt from the side am I taking my life in my hands?
Bearing in mind I've never used an angle grinder before (apart from a Dremel stylus which doesn't really count) what should I be aware of?

Morat trots off to google "how to use an angle grinder"