thank you both. I dont think I will attempt this, im guessing a VAG specialist will be able to do this fairly easily? Any idea on cost to fit? Hutchy I will be in touch about some bolts.

A VAG specialist might not want to do it,they will probably tell you it's better to remove the head and fit new gasket etc.

A VAG specialist might not want to do it,they will probably tell you it's better to remove the head and fit new gasket etc.

I'll ask around and see.

Any ideas of somewhere that would? Don't mind travelling.

I'll ask around and see.

Any ideas of somewhere that would? Don't mind travelling.

 

Darkside isn't that far from you, they can do it.

Darkside isn't that far from you, they can do it.

Thank you. Will give them a call.

You were right. Tried two different VAG specialists near me and they didn't want to touch it.

Darkside want £75 + VAT to fit them. Is that reasonable?

If that's including parts then yeah it's not bad for the job done right.

If that's including parts then yeah it's not bad for the job done right.

Plus parts - quote was £120 in total.

So the £75 is just labour.

I personally wouldn't pay it but it's not exactly outrageous at the same time. Like I said earlier, at least the jobs done right with an accurate torque wrench and sngle gauge (I'd hope for darkside)

You were right. Tried two different VAG specialists near me and they didn't want to touch it.

Darkside want £75 + VAT to fit them. Is that reasonable?

It's one hours work max,so if you think £100 per hour labour charge is acceptable go for it

It's one hours work max,so if you think £100 per hour labour charge is acceptable go for it

I'm a little bit out the loop when it comes to rates etc but I would think that for an hours work it is expensive but like Hutchy says it comes with an element of risk.

Waiting on one more local garage to come back to me so we shall see.

Thank you for the comments though, really appreciate it.

The other thing to keep in mind when paying that much for labour is the fact the head bolts are not guaranteed to stop your head lift/coolant loss,they will Deffo reduce it but once the seal between head and gasket has been breached it will never fully seal again even with stronger bolts.

So the £100 in labour might be worth putting into doing the job properly and getting head off and new gasket?

What did the local VAG garages quote for that?

My car never had head lift,so I fitted pd150 bolts as a precaution and didn't get any coolant loss or head lift with a GTB fitted and 2.3bar of boost.

Three other cars I know of all GTB powered were suffering coolant loss so fitted pd150 bolts,it helped but they still get some coolant loss and excess pressure in cooling system.

As above really. I fitted them and it only cured it for a while. The gasket must lose its seal slightly due to the blow by of the gases when it's lifted off...

In the process of being done properly on mine!

Sent from my D5503 using Tapatalk

+1 for the above, even changing the bolts one at a time you're effectively trying to salvage a blowing head gasket by fitting new bolts but using a secondhand gasket, it's pretty retarded but I've learned to go with the flow here and some people swear blind it fixed their problem so...

Thanks everyone for the advice which I will take on board. Going to do the sensible thing and book the car in to fully check it over to see where the coolant is going rather than just guess and fit the bolts.

Hi I need to replace my head bolts does anyone still have the afore mentioned pdf that tell you torque and tightening pattern?

On 30/05/2013 at 22:59, devonutopia said:

I paid good money for those PDFs!

(send me an email address )

Could you possibly send this to me please thinking of changing my headbolts but don't wanna do head gasket and timing belt cheers

Just do one at a time

1 minute ago, devonutopia said:

Just do one at a time

Same order as what you said before?

Order doesn't matter when doing 1 by 1 as other 9 bolts hold everything down when doing each bolt. Just remember which are done and which aren't. 

Good afternoon sorry to be  a pain has any got the pdf instruction/sequence for changing them without removing the head  many thanks

36 minutes ago, Dylbachvrs said:

Good afternoon sorry to be  a pain has any got the pdf instruction/sequence for changing them without removing the head  many thanks

 

Do them one at a time in any order.