Dear all,

 

Hopefully you won't mind this request for some advice - car is a 2.0 TDI with the BKD engine. Cambelt changed two years ago by (what was) a trusted garage. Inspection some time later under the bonnet made me realise it was a bit of a botch. The tensioner thread in the head stripped, so he had helicoiled the head (which I was aware of), but rather than use a typical stud, he elected to use a bolt which was too long........ so what does he do? Cut a slit in the cambelt cover to accommodate the bolt whilst putting the cover back on. Whilst driving my partner to work at the local hospital as she had laser eye surgery after her shift so couldn't drive (circa 70mph), I put my foot down to keep speed up a hill and there was nothing there.... no power nothing. Thinking it was limp mode and I needed to get off the dual carriageway I took the exit and upon coming to the roundabout and dipping the clutch the engine died.

 

Having tried to restart it multiple times, eventually I gave up and called for recovery. Upon inspection at home, the bolt that he used has sheared off in the head which obviously means lost cambelt tension and after removing the cam cover, damage to what I believe are rockers / rollers. My question to you all is - Do I fix this? I've been advised by the local machine shop that the head is perfectly repairable and may need a few parts replacing. Car has just rolled over 100k and has been serviced well throughout its life. Second question, do I have any comeback with the garage that did the repair? I don't really want the confrontation, but because of his 'repair' I now either need to front up the cash for this or replace the car. Neither is preferable, and with the price of used cars still stupidly high, I think repair is the only option.

 

Final question - I'm handy with spanners, have haynes (ha) manual, would you attempt this yourselves or get a garage to do it? Will try and attach some photos! Head rebuild would be done by engine centre, I don't have the tools or expertise to do that for sure!

 

Thank you all

After two years I doubt you'd get anywhere with a claim against the garage, unfortunately. Prices are indeed silly and what you get for your money is not good (from what I've seen recently). Repair seems sensible if the rest of the condition of your car is good. 100k is not that far any more.

Roller rockers alone wont be too bad if the camshaft is not damaged but they are likely to have become damaged because there has been valve to piston contact meaning bent valves which is a lot more costly.

 

Then you have to find a way to properly repair the bodged tensioner pivot bolt, I suspect this might be the biggest obstacle time and effort wise but not moneywise.

 

I would repair it if I could afford to but only if I was 100% sure of my repair to the damaged thread, no way would I want to bend a set of new valves.

Hi,

Get the cylinder head off first, then look at the pistons for contact. If all ok, get another cylinder head, parts wise I would recommend Darkside developments.

 

Trevor