Was going to perform a valve adjustment when i found the upper left most valve cover bolt was broken(still in bolt hole but snapped). Now i've become uneasy of running the car till i remove the the left over bolt and re-install a new bolt. any input on what damages could of occurred if any. anything i should do besides not run the car till fixed.

 

If it isn't leaking oil it should be fine to drive it.. Even with a small amount of oil loss you won't hurt anything as long as the oil level is between the lines on the dip stick.. I only fill to the halfway point when I change my oil. Just keep an eye on it and add oil as needed.

 

so as long as no oil starts leaking. thanks

 

I remember making the same discovery on my civic years ago. I'm pretty sure I drove it for a day or two without a problem. I remember that an easy out worked well for removing the rest of the bolt from the head.

 

Heh, have fun .. ok to run it for a while but when you have to change, at that point it'll be a struggle. Budget some time just for that, ie don't try to do it just before a valve adjustment or something if you're in a rush.

I hate broken bolts. Says something about the quality. High strength bolts don't break using hand tools. Oh well

 

Funny thing as well before finding that bolt, i removed the intake manifold and found that near the throttle body theres a bracket that mounts to the engine block. turns out its broken...my intake manifold is only held in by random wire harnesses at the top and the top of the intake runner...thing is i bought this car used. car survived a year and eventually survived a trip from long island ny to madison wi. still such a pain and expensive to fix

 

Hi, Snoogie, I realize this thread is over a year old, but had a strange coincidence: I did my first-ever valve clearance adjustment yesterday and it all went well except that when I went to tighten up the valve cover bolts the upper-left one snapped off just above the threads, leaving a chunk in the threaded hole in the head. I need to get a bolt extractor and work on it soon. So far after driving a good 60 highway miles I've noticed no leakage and am not too concerned, but I'm checking it twice a day in case oil starts leaking. I wasn't using a torque wrench, but I knew those bolts didn't need to be super-tight and was not wailing on them. I was surprised that with just a bit too much snugging it snapped.