Hello all, I am Zack Lloyd, and I have an old 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo that I am trying to DIY some work on, but one of the things that is throwing me off is the seemingly limitless different sizes of torx bolts used on this vehicle....
I have a screwdriver set that has most of the smaller sizes, but I continuously come across yet another torx bolt while working that is a different size than I have available. It is frustrating because my setup only goes up to T40, and a lot of these suckers are too big for that. I cannot, for the life of me figure out why something like this would be done to people trying to work on a vehicle, unless Jeep is trying to force you to take it into the dealership to get all work done.
I am regularly getting into a job, when I come across yet ANOTHER torx bolt, where it makes no sense to have one, and hit a wall. I know these things are supposed to improve ease of manufacturing the vehicles, but can't they at least stick within a certain size range??
Honestly, I have never seen a vehicle before that required SO MANY tools that nobody has in their box, and truly I did not think that was an American car thing. It is frustrating beyond words, and I would like to find every single torx bolt in the vehicle and swap it out with a normal bolt, but I do not know where they have stuck them all.
Word of advice to anyone thinking of DIY on a Jeep, make sure you have the world's most extensive tool set, or you may get stuck!!

 

The reason they use torx is for production line purposes. I have a set that goes up to T60. T55 is a common size on these. But is just one of the tool sets you need along with a full set of metric and standard sets to work on a Jeep

 

My little cheesy set goes to T-60. Technically I have always had the size I needed so far. There are a couple that I bought in an impact type. One for when dealing with removing my front bumper. Thinking when doing that I would have just twisted the one I needed out of the regular set. The other I can't remember why at the moment. One was a T-55 and the other was a T-50.

 

I appreciate the attention, though I am a little disappointed to hear that my torx set is not sufficient for my Jeep, but my main confusion is still whether or not there is any form of guidelines that could explain exactly where these types of bolts are placed in the vehicle, so that I can remove them and replace them with more DIY friendly bolts??
Better yet, some advice on where to get a complete torx set, would also be helpful. Keeping in mind the reason I DIY is that I am kind of tight on funds....
Oh yes, and Thanks in advance!!

 

One you will hate is the bolt holding your crank position sensor on, and then there is the front seat belt and front anti sway bar bolts to name a few

 

Thanks, I will remember those, and switch them out if I can!!

 

You can get a good set of Torx sockets for $30 or less, I don't see what the big deal is.

 

Yes, I went ahead, and splurged for a whole complete wrench set, which does include torx from T10 - T70!!

 

Jeep is certainly not the first and only manufacturer to use Torx fasteners............been using them for about 40 years.

 

my new JL rubicon comes with it's own torx kit. this damn thing has torx bolts everywhere. top, windshield, doors just to name a few. there is even a nice little cuddy to house your removed torx bolts for when you have your doors/roof off and windshield folded down.

the xj doesn't really have many torx bolts, except for interior fasteners mostly, and the fenders/door hinges. i don't generally mind torx fasteners except for when they strip or twist. which seems to be most of the time. lol.

 

The twisting part is why along with my cheesy torx set I have picked up a loose 1/2" drive impact torx or 2 along the way. Like I said above one was for the front bumper. The other I finally remembered is when I put factory tow hooks on my '00 that did not come with them.

 

CRC's Freeze-Off is your friend........

 

When a torx fastener head is starting to strip - and you are on the verge of destroying the head because your driver isn't gripping it well enough, simply dab your driver bit with a small amount of valve grinding compound. It is great at helping a torx driver seat and bite into what is left of a chewed up torx fastener.

I recently did this on my driver side lower door hinge, and it saved me a TON of trouble. Because that particular fastener is no fun to get to (for drilling, cutting, etc).

 

Great tip!!!!

 

Torx is like philips and a flat head. Absolutely useless and so difficult to get any amount of real torque on it.

Give me a proper fastener any day and I'll be so much happier! When I was doing my front upper control arms first thing I did was rid it of the torx for proper bolts.

Why do you think Canadians invented the robertson bit for.