How to Fix an unfixable BOA Snowboard Boot Dial

BOA has a five year warranty on their lacing systems, but what they don't tell you is that the warranty doesn't cover the part that's attached to the snowboard boot (or other footwear or equipment).

BOA does not supply any parts that are attached to the boot. only the replacement dial. They told me to make a warranty claim with K2.

K2 won’t help directly, they say send the boots back to the retailer in Canada. I live in Singapore.
My Boots, K2 Darko's, are no longer manufactured, they are quite new and I actually looked long and hard for them to replace my previous pair. I don’t want to give them up. My feet are weird and I’ve customised the liners to fit. It's the first time my feet have been pain free in snowboard boots, so I wanted to fix them.

Honestly, the BOA has a terrible design fault. Lots of them break in this way. Evidence being they have a policy that their warranty doesn’t cover it, and there’s quite a few posts online about it breaking.

The small peg/screw hole that the BOA dial screws into is too small, too short, and the screw that goes into it doesn’t go all the way in so it snaps off at the point where the screw stops. The BOA dial is wobbly, even before it’s broken, so pressure creates leverage and it snaps.

So, can it be repaired and improved? A metal screw into a metal hole would be better. A thicker screw would be better. A thicker peg hole would also be better. Something that didn’t wobble would be better.

It occurred to me that a bolt with a threaded hole would work much better. I asked Google what a bolt with a threaded slot in it is called. Answer: a Chicago screw.

Then I quickly found these on Shopee.

I measured my BOA and estimated it could fit the 3x12 - 4 bolt. A 4mm diameter outer slot, 12mm long that fits an M3 or 3mm screw thread.

I ordered and it came in a few days.

The screws that came with it were too short so I searched around in my box of screws and found a 15mm M3 screw. Here's how I repaired it.

Step 1.
Drill out the screw hole in the top of the BOA dial and remove the crappy little BOA screw. You’ll need a drill bit size big enough to fit the screw head through the hole.

Remove the screw and hold of on drilling out the blue part inside to accept your slightly bigger M3 screw.
Step 2. Then, drill out the hole in the BOA part that’s attached to your boot. You can use the centre of the hole to locate your drill bit.

I used a hand drill for accuracy and first drilled 4mm, checked and the Chicago screw wouldn’t go in, I was hoping I could force it for a tight fit. I then drilled 4.5mm and it went in with a bit of play but seemed pretty good. Drill all the way through to the inside of your boot.

Then clean up the plastic burrs around the edge of the hole. Ideally you want to remove any sharp bits that might get stuck inside or affect the BOA dial turning smoothly.
Step 3.

Put the Chicago screw through the hole inside your boot and check how it fits. Wind the BOA cord around the spindle and put it on the end of the Chicago screw. Ideally you want the end of it to be in a similar spot to the original plastic one, just poking beyond the spindle. You can dismantle the working BOA on your other boot to check. If it’s sticking out too far you can try adding a washer on the inside of your boot. It's important to get the position of the Chicago screw as close as possible to the original position as if it isn't the BOA might not work correctly.

Then, attach the BOA dial (no need to screw it on, you can just press it on) and wind it up and release it a few times and check everything feels good. You can also screw in your chosen screw into the Chicago screw without the BOA dial attached and check it looks like it goes in far enough.

Step 4.

If you’re happy you can now drill out the hole in the blue part of the BOA dial. My screws are M3, so again, I drilled 3mm first, then drilled 3.2mm to check if I could get the screw in at 3mm ( I couldn’t) and to make sure I didn’t break the dial. To help you can pop out the blue part and hold it with some pliers while you drill from the other side.

Step 5.

Screw the screw all the way into the hole you just drilled. Again, you will probably have to click the dial so the little blue part sticks out and hold that still with some pliers to stop it spinning. 3.2mm was perfect as the screw cut a thread into the plastic for a snug fit. Edit: after further testing, I realised it isn't good to have this screw threaded into the blue part. Everything works fine, but if you turn the dial backwards when the BOA is popped out, the screw will come undone. It needs to spin freely to stay screwed in. I redrilled at 4mm so that the screw has room to turn and it fixed the problem.

Step 6.

Now align the screw with the Chicago screw and tighten it. You will have to hold the Chicago screw with an Allen key/hex wrench inside your boot while you do this.

All going well you should then be able to operate the BOA as normal. If you can’t get the screw in tight, you might have to get a shorter screw or cut it down. Ideally you would then fix the screw with some of the blue glue they put it screws to stop them coming lose. I didn’t as I’m happy with the tightness.

After fixing it it feels much sturdier than the original design. It doesn’t wobble around and I think even if you tried to snap it, it wouldn’t break off. With a normal BOA, it would be easy to snap it off.

I haven’t tried this fix on the snow yet, but I’ll update once I do.

One thing to note, my boots also have normal external laces (the BOA is only for the internal lacing/heel hold) so if this breaks again it won’t stop me from getting down the mountain. If you’re making this fix with boots that only have BOA lacing, you might want to think twice or make sure you have backup like velcro straps or large cable ties so you can make a temporary fix on the hill if it fails again. Good to have these with you anyway as the other BOA could break at any time.

Also, I wouldn’t recommend relying on this fix on a backcountry tour where a breakage could get you into trouble. On the other hand, I think this fix is probably stronger than a standard BOA anyway.

If you need any help or you would like me to post you a Chicago screw, please get in touch.