Engine bolts snap + gearbox trouble

[felixoscar]

Hi there,

I had my timing belt changed at 110 000 klms at a VW service dealership and about 2 weeks later as I was driving along there was a big noise I got out and found my engine hanging of the ground. Well to cut a long story short the car was towed back to the dealership and I had managed to snap 3 of my engine mount bolts. I was told by the dealership that they had either under tightened or over tightened the bolts and reused the old bolts.

Well my 2 questions are - What other damage has the engine falling caused and now 2 months later my manual gearbox is hard to change into gears 3 & 5. Can anyone please help.......

[Col]

Sounds like you were lucky.

There are 3 bolts that secure the engine mounting bracket to the block. One of which is very difficult to get at. The difficult bolt is often not tightened up properly and allows the bracket to move ever so slightly putting a lot of strain on the other two bolts.

Over time these bolts fail, the result of which you have suffered. In extreme cases the rear bolt remains but a section of the engine block snaps off resulting in the engine being written off.

In your case the damage sounds quite limited but I would insist they replace the following as they could have contacted the chassis leg.

Timing belt complete with tensioner,water pump, idler pulleys.
Auxilary belt complete with tensioner.

edit.. the gear linkage probably just needs adjusting.

[felixoscar]

Thanks for the reply Big Col, much appreciated. Will phone them with these concerns. I feel a bit relieved about the gearbox now, will get it adjusted.
I have owned her from new and it's been a fantastic car but the servicing of it has been nothing more than complete nightmare. In Australia VW service departments are very rare so when you arn't happy with the one you are currently using, there is no other vw service department to move on to. I hope she lasts for a few more years but it's not looking promising.:Blush: