Just as I pulled up at work this lunchtime my vRS started making a funny noise, had a look under the bonnet and noticed the cambelt cover had popped up and the rear, pulled it off and I can see the tension pulley rubbing, and cutting into the engine mount! The belt doesn't seem to be either too tight or loose, and the engine doesn't seem to move if I pull/push it. So I can not see how the two items are meeting!

Anyone seen this before, or know what has broken?

TIA

Looks like the block has busted :(

Guess I won't be driving anywhere over xmas.

Edited 18 December, 200916 yr by peppyuk

This is what happens.

http://www.dieselgeek.com/images/broken13mm.JPG

And this fixes it

http://www.dieselgeek.com/servlet/Detail?no=468

Looks like a good "fix"

I got the repair kit bits today and spent most of the day laying in the snow under a frozen car, not nice. It's a bit of a pig to fit, access is a real pain, but it fits well and I've just driven 80 odd miles and all is well

So are there other holes in the block to mount that chunk of aluminium to or is it something else?

So are there other holes in the block to mount that chunk of aluminium to or is it something else?

The holes to mount it to are already on the block, although one is already in use with a pipe bracket that I had to adjust to fit over the new alloy piece. All in all it's a lot cheaper and easier than replacing the engine block!

It seems that is quite a rubbish design if this just breaks away so easily, doesn't look like much material there in the first place.

Must be fairly common if there is an aftermarket repair available!?

Edited 24 December, 200916 yr by Jon_VRS

That's a good result when all looked to be doom and gloom initially. Did you order the part from the States? And did you need to modify the intercooler pipe bracket to fit the part?

It seems that is quite a rubbish design if this just breaks away so easily, doesn't look like much material there in the first place.

Must be fairly common if there is an aftermarket repair available!?

Pretty much my thoughts when it happened, but the dieselgeek repair was the only mention of this happening I could find so I'm not sure how often this happens.

That's a good result when all looked to be doom and gloom initially. Did you order the part from the States? And did you need to modify the intercooler pipe bracket to fit the part?

I ordered from the states, and it got over here pretty quick, in the run up to xmas too! It did need some fiddling with the lower bracket on the turbo to intercooler hard pipe.