Not happy chappy today. Driving up the road got to the roundabout, then a knocking noise occured followed by a loud rubbing noise. Stopped car asap and slowly pulled into a siding. Opened the bonnet and immediately noticed the engine sitting much lower than normal:eek:

The cambelt cover raised and a hole it it, not good. I am guessing drivers side engine mount gave way or bolts fell off? Hoping no severe damage was done.:confused:

Got towed home by AA. (only half a mile thank God).

Anyone had this before?

So going to check the damage tomorrow as it happend at around 20:30.

Is the Engine mount a standard Skoda item or special for a VRS MK1. Is it a main dealer item, and difficulty in replacing it? P/N etc.

Interesting I had the Cam belt changed by my local garage 3 moths ago and understand the mount is removed to do this, so maybe not tightened up enough?

Mark.

Either not tightened up enough or to much.

The bolts should be replaced and torqued up to the correct value by the book.

The mounts dont break (well ive never seen one outside of an accident, and they are designed to then).

like you say mate prob fitted too tight. and eventually broke.

what sort of damage would it do ne way?

billy

Isn't one of the bolts difficult to get to and sometimes gets left out resulting in the mount becoming detached sometime afterwards?

Seem to remember this happening to a couple of people on the UK-MkIVs forum.

The two large vertical bolts (right hand mounting to body bolts) are stretch bolts and should have been replaced when the cam belt was changed.

The new ones are torqued to 40Nm's and then tightened a further 90 degrees

I did my cam belt last week and replaced all 7 bolts just to be safe.

The only problem I had was there was not enough clearance between the engine brkt and the inner wing to torque the centre bolt for the engine brkt.

Hope it has'nt caused to much damage.

I just had my cam belt done by a local garage and the guy's chat didn't fill me wityh confidence. I'm betting he didn't replace the bolts on mine. Are they easy enough to do yourself or are they a pig to get to?

Bowders, hope the car is not too badly damaged. Let us know which part actually failed when you know?

Cheers,

iep

Out of curiosity vrs180, which engine mounts did you need to remove in order to do the cam belt. Just the driver's side or all three? From your description it sounds like the two vertical bolts (40nm torque) are on the driver's side and connect the mount to the body?

Cheers,

iep

If the bolts were reused they will snap.

Sounds to me as ross said that you need to go and have a chat with your local garage and take a copy of the receipt if it doesn't show charge for new bolts under the parts section.

I had mine done back in november on 54k and had a full longlife service 3rd one. on the receipt it says cam belt kit and water pump plus othe stuff for the service, now ive done 60k+ and so far all is well,

if mine was gonna go would it of already gone?

you jus got me thinkin now lol

billy

Out of curiosity vrs180, which engine mounts did you need to remove in order to do the cam belt. Just the driver's side or all three? From your description it sounds like the two vertical bolts (40nm torque) are on the driver's side and connect the mount to the body?

Cheers,

iep

Yes you only need to remove the O/S engine mounting.

2 small bolts secure the mounting to the O/S inner wing, 3 bolts secure an engine mounting brkt to the engine and 2 large (vertical) stretch bolts clamp the engine mounting and engine mounting brkt together.

IMO the engine mounting and engine brkt look very well engineered, robust and are adequately secured to the inner wing and engine, but have a weak link in the way the two parts are secured together via the stretch bolts.

The engine is in effect hanging from below the mounting, and the weight of the engine is carried by the two stretch bolts.

I just had my cam belt done by a local garage and the guy's chat didn't fill me wityh confidence. I'm betting he didn't replace the bolts on mine. Are they easy enough to do yourself or are they a pig to get to?

Bowders, hope the car is not too badly damaged. Let us know which part actually failed when you know?

Cheers,

iep

To change the 2 stretch bolts only... all you would need to do is support the engine and remove the old bolts and fit new making sure the brkt and mounting are aligned properly (detailed in Haynes manual).

To change all bolts, as above plus: PAS res, unbolted and moved to one side, O/S wheel removed, O/S arch linner removed, turbo pancake pipe removed, plastic sump guard and O/S support removed, aux drive belt removed plus upper and middle cam belt covers.

Sounds a lot of work but its not, if you do have a go just be careful to get the centre timing belt cover back in the right place. It has a small tag on it that slides behind a lug on the water pump.... if you get it the wrong side of the water pump the aux belt tensioner roller will rub on the centre cover.

The original bolts as fitted at the factory usually have yellow paint on their heads, new replacements don't.

are they visible from the top?

are they visible from the top?

Iirc two or possibly four of them are :confused:

Well thanks guys for responses and hope I have not worried to many people. I still have not had time to have a proper look, but from what I can see is that there is a real breakage. The large part of the mount that is secured to the inner wing has a bracket going through it that looks a little like a bar that is fitted into the rubber section of the inner wing mount. This part looks like it is hanging down from the fixing on the inner wing, and appears to be still fixed to the engine side. I hope I have not done too much damage as I stopped almost immediately. I am betting that the bolts were not replaced and they may have possibly been over tightened?

Mind you as it appears with a basic check that it is a breakage away from the bolts i am a little perplexed. I did read somewhere that these cast alloy mounts can break when extra torque is used coming from tuned motors and have seen poly ones advertised from various companies. How often this happens and what conditions to cause breakage I am unsure of.

As this is 3 months after taking it to the garage I might not be lucky as can't prove the bolts were not replaced. I will have a go though. I purchased a new mount from GSF(genuine VW / Audi one) for £34, which i thought was a good deal. May look at claiming this back.

Edited 17 March, 200917 yr by Bowders1

Iirc two or possibly four of them are :confused:

Confirm.... 4 are visible from the top, two with a yellow paint stripe and two with a green paint stripe (if original bolts).

Sounds nasty that. Hope you get it sorted let us know how you get on.

just as an aside note, i have seen the brackets shatter before now, the castings aren't particularly high quality as such but you would have to hit one pretty hard to crack/shatter it.. i think it may have been caused by the bolts being overtightened... also be careful, it is very easy to damage the threads in these castings

vrs180, can you have aquick look at the page listed below and identify exactly which bolts you mean:

Octavia 2003

You'll need to register to the site but it is well worth it for fully up to date schematics and part number listings of almost all VAG cars. Plus it is free!

I think the stretch bolts are part 15 on the diagram (or maybe 6)? Can you clarify which?

Cheers,

iep

I think the bolts you are refering to are listed as

I think the full set is 2x15(the stretch bolts that hold the mount together, 2x6(onto chassis leg), a 13 and 14(which go into the engine block)

I may be wrong though

HTH

I reckon I'll just do the stretch bolts since they are the ones which are meant to be replaced. Can anyone who has done this job confirm/deny fatty5000 and my suspicions that part 15 is the stretch bolt?

Cheers,

iep

I reckon I'll just do the stretch bolts since they are the ones which are meant to be replaced. Can anyone who has done this job confirm/deny fatty5000 and my suspicions that part 15 is the stretch bolt?

Cheers,

iep

iep

Not sure that picture is correct or I'm looking at it wrong :confused:..... it lists part 15 as M10.

The stretch bolts are M12 x 65, the mounting to wing bolts are M10 x 55, and the engine brkt has 3 bolts, 2 are M10 x 85, and 1 is M10 x 112.

I have the vag invoice with all the part No's if you require any more info

I have just looked at mine and it looks like the ones from the top have been out. they have the green dash on the top? should I be worried?

billy

No, in fact, they are dashed green at the factory. Provided the green line extends onto the mount and lines up perfectly, this indicates that they have not been moved since installation.

Which leads me rather neatly onto my point. Both my stress bolts (it's easy to tell which are which when you look at the car) are still dashed green and the lines indicate that the bolts have not been moved. Is it possible that the mechanic who did my cam belt managed to do it without disturbing these bolts? I guess this is possible by simply detaching the mount from the bodywork and jacking the engine up slightly further instead?

If these have not been moved then I guess I'm in the clear! Except that it's needed about 0.5l of water since he did the belt and waterpump! I'm hopingf this is just air working out of the system.

Cheers,

iep

That pic is correct , but the part number listing is not correct, as I ordered these parts today from VW(same parts and mount)

I added the parts to the pic and indicated where i think mine has broken. Won't be able to be sure until i get time to check on Friday.