How many drive shaft bolts does an Octy II have, and if i was to find a bolt resting on an arm, covered in thick black grease what would that suggest could be the damage.

if it's covered in thick black grease that will most likely be from the cv boot/joint, or possibly from the steering rack

I didn't need to hear that :(

If you are on MSN Tom, give me a kick will you. Ta

You should have six bolts in each driveshaft in the inner joint, one on the outer joint on the hub. Grease is also in the inner joint of which some comes out when you unbolt the driveshaft from its inner joint on the gearbox.

Hmm explains the rather severe graunching noises. Apparently the recovery guy says at least three came out.

What sort of damage could this cause?

Ta

Damage to the driveshaft and gaiter is quite likely.

Gearbox has been out then I take it, whoops.

Oh well, guess that is going to be quite a wait on parts.

The recovery guy suggested gearbox could have suffered, i take it that this is quite unlikely?

I have the thing booked in now, but will have to work out how to play the hire car thing so i can get into work as much as possible. Oddly enough the same garage did some work on the box area of the car a while ago.

Then i'd say they didnt tighten up the bolts fully, how long ago was it?

Gearbox should be fine.

few months possibly.

Done about 6k miles since, but had asked them to check out a noise which they said wasn't there and I didn't notice again from that area a few weeks later when it was in for a service.

Are they supposed to be loctite'd bolts Ross?

Just checked and I assume they must be coated as the instructions say use new screws. Wonder if they did?

Bolt I saw looked like it was covered in locking compound. Couple of inches long, about 1/3 to 1/2" wide and has a spline head on it. Covered in green compound on the thread that looks like locking compound

Really sick of all things VAG now :(

yeah, they are supposed to use new bolts..

New bolts and should be torqued.

to be honest, it's almost impossible to get the bolts out without damaging them anyway.. especially when they are caked in road crud... do they use splined bolts on those like on the fabia??

The ones I found were splined yeah, but looked pretty clean and new. Certainly not a trace of rust.

Thanks for the info Tom, Ross and Stu.

I'll post up here if I get any further info.

yeah they do, there's 2 main types of driveshaft bolts, m8 and m10,

they are all steach bolts and should be replaced if removed,

the torque setting's

m8 is 45Nm

m10 is 25 Nm then 70Nm

Garage have said looks like the bolts were indeed not done up correctly and will be replacing various parts and obviously new bolts.

ETA is tomorrow if the parts are in, however I am waiting for a call on them and have a feeling that might not be the case.

Only just heard about this - man that's gotta suck. Hope they sort it out properly this time, glad you didn't end up dropping the driveshaft out as that would have been pretty dangerous I'd imagine.

We both thought it sounded as if the wheel was going to come off. :(

Hayley should know what it sounds like - just ask her about the Renault 21

hmmm - I didnt replace mine when I took off the shafts, just gave them a good drop or two of the red loctite and torqued to spec.

Will have to take a peek when next under the car (which will not be that long off....)

Hayley should know what it sounds like - just ask her about the Renault 21

Yes oddly enough she did mention a drive shaft.

Well fingers crossed it looks like I might get my car back tomorrow.

In terms of the fact that the garage failed to fit properly when doing other work, does anybody thing some compensation is in order for wasted time etc. I was thinking perhaps a cheap service?

Worth suggesting for sure, I mean it could have got rather dangerous, at which point I have a feeling that garage might have been liable for it - as it does seem like a mistake was made.

On the plus side they are sorting it out without arguing about it (sure they shouldnt argue, but still) so they may be willing to give ya a discount