General

Front Tow Socket & Toolkit Info

Back on 11/3/98, Thilo Corts wrote:
>
>On a more technical note: I seriously urge everybody to check
>their front tow socket. When I recently needed to access this,
>I found that the aluminum plug that is screwed in there to keep
>dirt out was frozen in the thread. Wouldn't budge.

Well, I finally got around to checking my own front tow socket, and, like yours, the plug is seriously stuck. Had I applied any more torque to the 3/8" breaker bar, I'm sure I would have snapped or stripped something. For those of you who don't know what the "front tow socket" is (I didn't even know it was there until Thilo's post - didn't see anything in the owner's manual about it): It's a metal extension from the chassis that is visible in one of the grill slits underneath the right fog lamp. In the 928 tool kit is a large "eye" bolt that can be screwed into this socket (or a similar one on the back of the car just above the license plate) should it ever be necessary to winch the 928 onto a flatbed. If I'm lucky, I'll never need to use this feature of the car. However, it would be nice to get it "unstuck" - just in case. So, if anyone has advice on this, please respond.

Thilo, were you successful at getting it drilled out?

On a slightly positive note, I finally figured out what that funny looking tool in the 928 toolkit is. You know, the 12 inch metal rod with 4 bends in it. It's got a 6mm hex bit on one end that fits into the plug in the front tow socket. It was useless to me, of course, since the plug just wont budge.

+Greg Nichols
'87 928S4, 5-sp, venetian blue

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FYI, That same tool is also used for moving the power seats fore/aft manually when the motor fails thru the small hole in the front trim cover of the seat and also is used for removing the battery hold-down bracket Allen bolt to remove the battery.

David Roberts

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I suggest you douse it with penetrating oil, wait a few hours, (days would be better), and then try an "Easy Out". Due to the shallow depth of the socket you may have to grind the tip off of the Easy Out to get it to grip. Good Luck.

Don Burrows
87 S4-A/T