After my thread thinking I had a broken spring, due to a really loud audible knocking and grinding noise after hitting a pothole, I called the AA to stabilise the car and guide me to a garage.

They came checked the front end over, both corners, no shock of spring issues. The guy felt it was probably a top mount. I limped it round to my mechanic who has had the car today and all ball joints etc are fine. The top mounts are fine. It has left him stumped.

The noise is getting louder but I have noticed now, the whining noise when I go round left hand corners is related to the rpm of the car. Dropping the car off a speed bump causes the front drivers corner to clunk and sag and then the rpm grinding starts.

I took it down a straight bumpy road at about 10mph earlier and over every bump the audible grinding / skimming noise happened.

I have popped the bonnet tonight and behind the fuel filter by the alternator there is a sheered off bolt that goes into a silver looking mount.

Has one of my engine mounts gone? Acceleration doesn’t seem to cause any knocking or banging.

This bolt is hanging out…..

Difficult to get oriented to what that bolt is attached to - is it on the alternator side engine mount?

Clearly not right, and very likely to be the cause of your problem. It looks as if it's backed right out.

Edited 29 August, 202529 Aug by Warrior193
grammar

It is the engine mount by the looks and tightening it up has sorted the problem.

My next question is what are the torque specs on it?

Be careful, a lot of fixings VAG uses are so-called 'stretch bolts' and are supposed to be used once only - this is commonly for things like cylinder head bolts, but it would be a good idea to check.

It would appear that at least some of the engine mount bolts are 'torque to yield' and should only be used once - a torque figure I've managed to find for the three bolts securing the mount to engine block (M10) is 45Nm.

Is the bolt that you found backed out a single one securing the complete mount to the chassis?

If so, it may be that there is a specified tightening sequence for it, which I haven't found yet.

1 hour ago, Warrior193 said:

Is the bolt that you found backed out a single one securing the complete mount to the chassis?

If so, it may be that there is a specified tightening sequence for it, which I haven't found yet.

I’ll try and get a better photo of the mount and bolt I tightened tomorrow.

I am pretty sure it has to be removed to do the timing belt which was done in 2023.

Edited 29 August, 202529 Aug by bluevrsman

It’s in a really difficult place to get a photo, simply because space is very limited.

This is the best I could get.

It is definitely the engine mount I have done 50 miles now with no noises.

Not sure if the Octavia VRS has a different engine mount design to normal TDi’s but I have found a very similar design from a MK6 Golf.