Mk3 Octavia VRS front strut replacement

Hi all,

I got home today to a clonk, discovered coil spring had snapped (At the top) and the strut mount bearing had been ripped to bits.

Started to strip down to replace and I can’t for the love of me get the bolt out from where the strut meets the hub (the m14 spline one). The nut came of no bother but the bolts just not budging.

Before I get carried away can someone confirm if the holes are threaded or not - I’m sure they aren’t.

Any useful tips? Has been lathered in penetrating oil, cleaned, tapped with a hammer , little bit of heat but I can’t get it to budge. I don’t have an impact gun but borrowing one tomorrow to give that a go.

Thanks,

Ali

Well 20minutes of bone shacking relentless use of an impact gun finally saw me win the battle of man vs bolt. But that did require me to take the hole assy. off and put it on the work bench. Indeed it was not threaded and was stuck with the dissimilar metal corrosion between steel bolt and alloy body, it has been on for 8 years and 100k so not overly suprised - do all Octavia’s have an alloy knuckle Arm bearing Housing or just vrs?