Need advice on what to do...

[Idrisu]

I was lowering my rear coilovers and removed the shock mount bolt without thinking about loosening the locking collar so I put the bolt back in and gave it about 5 turns.

The locking collar was tight as hell and the spanner wrenches wasn't cutting it. I had to use the sledge hammer/Flathead combo to help break it free. After a couple blows the bolt comes out from the lower shock mount and the tip of it is stripped, same with the entrance of the bolt hole. The bolt did not catch at all to let me screw it back in so I tried the bolt on the passenger side and it kind of threaded in. After threading it in and out the stripped bolt was able to catch and thread in with a little force...

Now the problem is when I was wrapping everything up, bolting down the shocks. The bolt threaded smooth in the beginning but towards the end it got really hard to bolt using a ratchet…. I tightened it as much as I could, I believe if I went any further the bolt would snap.

The shocks have a little bit of play in them side to side since the bolt wouldn’t go in all the way. I was able to make the drive home but as you would guess there is a lot of racket in the rear from the shocks moving. So my question is do I need to buy new bolts? Is it possible to repair the threads inside the hole or will I have to replace the whole arm assembly?

[McGyver]

Looks like you learned a life-lesson there. Mine was smacking the threads on a control arm ball joint and tweaked the threads pretty bad. So I got to replace control arms! (You know, I think I learned this lesson several times)

My ? Remove the bolts, try to tap the hole to fix the threads, then replace the bolts using good used hardware. If that doesn't work, you get to learn how to replace trailing arm bushings. And since you're in there, might as well learn how to replace rear subframe bushings. Good luck!

[MR E30 325is]

Agree with McGyver. Life lesson in its fullest.

His advice is spot on. Attempt a re-thread. If unsuccessful then its time to source new trailing arms!

[Kershaw]

At the very minimum you need to retap the threads. That is what I would try first. Watch some videos on how to do this before you attempt it. This will be your one shot at fixing this easily. Recut the threads on the bolts too, but only use them if you got it to go on the original spiral. Don't use cross threaded bolts.

If you fuck that up, you'll have to drill it out and heli-coil it.

If you fuck that up, you'll have to replace the arms.

[Idrisu]

Lesson learned.. Retapping the threads did the trick, thanks everyone.