Help needed - loose bolt!

[LiamP1985]

28776 Hi all, new to the forum and hoping someone here can help me out. I have a 2004 1.9tdi and Ive just looked around the engine with a torch and spotted something which has given me some concern. It seems that a bolt may have come loose and the gearbox (?) is coming away from the mount. Could one of you kind people please check your own vehicle and see if this is normal or do I need to get it rectified ASAP? Picture attached to show exactly what I'm looking at while standing at the O/S wheel, looking down below the EGR. Thanks for any help.

[zollaf]

that needs fixing asap.

[MiniMental]

Is that starter motor mounting? Definatley tighten it back up. If threads stripped it will need heli-coiling. Not good.

[zollaf]

i'm thinking its a bellhousing bolt , could be starter though, but not good either way. in fact, its that ungood that i would recommend not driving the car until its tight, and all the others that are loose or fallen out. has it just had a clutch fitted ?

[LiamP1985]

The reason I was looking in the first place is because this morning there was a terrible grinding noise on cold start, I pushed the clutch in and tried again and the engine fired up. I was guessing the starter motor may be on its way out, but is there a possibility it could just be this loose bolt? I'm hoping the bolt will be accessible without removing anything other than the undertray. The clutch was replaced 30k ago so may not have been tightened correctly and its worked its way out slowly.

[MiniMental]

Aye, was thinking along the lines of all bolts would have to come loose to seperate like that, or two starter bolts which I thought more likely. Not sure on the layout of the A4 but if it's anything like the Passat and if it's the starter, you may be able to reach the bolts by taking o/s wheel off. Still a pain but iirc my passats can be reached behind wheel arch? I would heed Zolla's advice on not using the car until it's sorted. Will either wreck your starter or input shaft amongst other things. Noise on starting will be because starters not engaging as somethings moved...

Mini

[JMR1]

Better check all the bell housing bolts, and any other bolts which would normally be disturbed during a clutch/flywheel replacement job.....

[LiamP1985]

28778 Well, had the car up on ramps and took the undertray off to check the starter motor. The bottom bolt was completely gone!! And the top bolt which turned out to be the one in my original picture was so loose that the starter motor was just waiting to drop off. Tightened the top bolt quite easily with a 16 socket, and used an Allen head bolt with spring washer to put in the bottom hole. The starter motor is now solid and the car has started 4 times now without any grinding. Touch wood, I'll get a few more miles out of her. Ive attached a pic of the vacant mounting hole. Thankfully, this fix only cost me 2 hours of my time, of which 90mins was spent getting the bloody undertray off and then back on :mad:

[JMR1]

You were lucky..😃. Could have been worse...much worse.I presume that you ckecked all the other bolts on the bell housing? And had a good look round underneath while it was up on the stands? Just in case...btw: were ALL the retainers on the engine tray present? Usually, its agood indication of how well a job was done..a screw here and there missing isnot a good omen..😠

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[LiamP1985]

I checked as many bolts as I could see, but I'm just going to assume the starter bolts are the only ones that were loose (otherwise I wouldn't dare drive it again). The retainers on the undertray were all there when I bought the car, but when I do an oil change I tend to find that one of those 'half turn' screws has dropped out, so I just use cable ties where the screws have been lost.

[JMR1]

Yes, these little halfturn plastic screws can be a nuisance. When ever I am working on my car, I get an empty plastic milk bottle, cut a hole in it just below the handle, never lost any thing out of it yet... and the 3 ltr bottle is good for even big jobs, using lots of nuts and bolts. You can even use the smaller bottles for each "section2 of a job... makes re-assembly much easier. Now al you have to do is drive, and enjoy, Good Luck, :)