Had my 17-plate Octavia Estate serviced this morning. All fine, but garage pointed out that one of the lugs attaching the 'air filter' to the manifold was broken. They quoted ~£600 to fix as they'd need to replace the manifold. Didn't really know what he was on about, but as it seemed a little OTT for what sounded like a broken plastic clip I deferred a decision. I took a look myself once home.

 

Seems it's one majorly broken (massive gap), and another sheared but the bits still there clips between the air box and the manifold.

 

Left side:

 

  

 

Right side:

 

Bugger. Who'd make important car parts out of plastic!?

 

I've done a fair bit of searching around, but am rather surprised this doesn't seem to be a particularly common problem.

 

Ultimately, I'll pay the money and have it fixed, but is there a better/cheaper/easier way? What would you do?

Hi Mat, unfortunately I assume that the mechanic is not going to put his / her hand up to breaking this - was the air filter changed as part of the service? While it takes a bit of force to remove the airbox, it seems very unlikely that this broke all by itself! - When I did my first air filter change recently I was really pulling on the top of the box (I didn't know about the two screws underneath) - and I didn't manage to break any of the mounts!

To fix, from memory, the webbing on the manifold is fairly deep - it might be possible to drill and tap the mount to fix replacement airbox studs (if such a thing exists) - or use the ball-type mounts similar to those used on gas struts, these are available in various sizes. The ball engages with a rubber bung fitted into the bottom shell of the filter airbox. NB. if this works, make sure you smear a little silicon (or similar) lube grease on the rubber bungs before refitting.

It was only an interim service, mainly an oil change. So as far as I understand, no need touch let alone replace the air filter. Certainly nothing to that effect on the invoice.

 

Wish I'd noticed it myself before now when doing the basic checks and topping the washer water up as it was bloody obvious once I'd been pointed in the right direction. Could have been like it an hour; could have been like it a month. Looks more like the latter by the amount of muck on the broken part that would be clean if today.

Hi Mat, try googling plastic ball stud, or take a look at 'Snaploc' vibration and noise-decoupling mounts.

If you were to drill and tap the manifold webbing you really want a coarser thread to screw into the plastic - although I have seen one type that looks as if the threaded section is self-tapping, which would be ideal if you could get some with the correct size ball head.

Edited 13 August, 20205 yr by Warrior193
Typo

Possible to drill a couple of holes and secure with decent cables ties?

 

I had radiator mounts give way on a previous car that were similar.  I'd lost one side, but drilled and tapped a hole on one side, put in a bolt, that I left proud and then rounded with an angle grinder. The other side I drilled both parts filled both new cavities with JB cold weld and glued it.  Both lasted the life of the car.

 

Warrior's options sound more sensible than my suggestions though.

 

Gaz

 

Edited 13 August, 20205 yr by IamGaz

It might be a good idea to drill a hole in the manifold webbing. However,  please remember that all components are designed down to a loading limit and drilling through the webbing may weaken the manifold and cause a failure. 

Of course I could be over thinking your problem,  but I'm just putting a thought out there.

Good luck. 👍👍

Stainless steel lockwire is my bodging tool of choice for all jobs like this, only tiny holes need be drilled and you can also plastic weld the join as well with a big soldering iron using a tywrap as a filler rod (a top tip passed on to me) the plastic welding on its own would not be enough the next time a muppet does not know how many fixings to remove or his own strength.

Failing all that. Expoxy resin or Gorilla glue would rebond the broken parts.

For £600 I would leave it. That’s typical dealership fitters - the mounting is part of the intake manifold, it’s broken, so new intake manifold required. Any decent mechanic could fabricate something, or use glue/plastic welding or something  to repair that. Or if it was me, have the ability to say “It’s only one of the mountings, the others remain. The air filter housing is held together by screws so it’s air tight and the pipework and other mounting keep the thing securely in place.”

In any case it’s either been broken by someone removing the air box or it’s failed in which case it’s a manufacturing defect so could be warranty ? 

 

12 hours ago, IamGaz said:

Possible to drill a couple of holes and secure with decent cables ties?

 

I had radiator mounts give way on a previous car that were similar.  I'd lost one side, but drilled and tapped a hole on one side, put in a bolt, that I left proud and then rounded with an angle grinder. The other side I drilled both parts filled both new cavities with JB cold weld and glued it.  Both lasted the life of the car.

 

Warrior's options sound more sensible than my suggestions though.

 

Gaz

 

The JB cold weld is probably worth a try - pretty good stuff if I recall correctly.