Pickard1

Wow. Sounds cheap. Would have been tempted if I'd have seen this a couple of weeks back!

I remember when this happened to my G60. German ebay was my fix, although this was about 15 years ago. It was always a debate with the G-lader failures whether the timing belt snapped or if something else seized and caused the belt to snap. Chicken or egg. If you have a stripped belt then that is leaning towards something else seizing/jamming.

when I had my g60 oil was 100-120C with the normal pulley and 120+ with the 63mm. its mainly pully size that will drive the oil temps up I think rather than what 'stage' the charger is at. Once my mocal was fitted I couldnt get above about 106C no matter how I drove. The oil to the charger lubricates the bearings. its these bearings seizing that snaps the timing belt and explodes the charger, so the correct oil is essential. Synta silver served me fine in conjunction with the mocal cooler.

pictures on page 2. I saw the tool in thr erwin manual, I dont think this caused the break. I am quite certain that they removed the cam for some reason. maybe they dropped something down the back of the cam?!

I followed supercharged's advice and checked out that ErWin site. As I suspected there is no need to take off the cam cover / bearing cap assembly to change the injectors. In fact there aren't many repairs in the book that ask you to remove/replace it. So I'm not sure why they were in there. We have phoned VW customer care on the number above. All you get is a nice sounding receptionist lady. She in turn checks back with the dealership to get their version of events. As the dealership have now replaced the head, it is in their eyes been put right, so there is no case to answer as far as VW customer care is concerned. I suppose in some respects they are right, but I am still pretty miffed about the dishonesty that has taken place. I would like an apology and someone at VW to acknowledge they were wrong, as well as my 270 quid back. This was part of the reason for making the post in the first place - does anyone know anyone (or even work at) VW customer care who is an actual technical person who would stand a chance of understanding what has gone on here and might be able to grasp that there has been some serious dishonesty/fraudulent behavior by the dealership......? The ladys on the phone have a good telephone manner, but they ain't mechanics! As my next step I have put some of the photos on the previous page into a powerpoint presentation explaining what has happened and emailed it to the directors of the franchise. The directors aren't actually based at my local branch, as the franchise is part of a small chain. I'm guessing they wont have been aware of my trivial little dispute until they got the email this morning. In the accompanying letter I ask them to investigate who in the chain of command made the decision to try and put the follower back the right way to disguise what had happened. In taking these actions, and then trying to charge the customer, this person committed at the least a sackable offense, and possibly an illegal one as well. I was hoping to hear back pretty quickly as I thought they may be shocked at director level to hear what had been going on, but I haven't received anything yet so I guess they are pretty apethetical as well. Next step may be trading standards/ watchdog / don't get done get Dom etc... Episodes such as this always make me think of that undercover boss program on channel 4, where the boss goes back to the shop floor and gets to see the mischief that the staff are really up to. I'd guess there is someone, somewhere within VW that would be pretty annoyed with all of this, its just a matter of getting through the lines of foot soldiers rolling out the standard company line to find that person!

can anyone confirm if the cam cover (as in the integral cam bearing cap casting) should be taken off for an injector change on a 2.0 tdi from a golf.

Ive finally found some time to take a closer look at my 260 pound purchase. The damage wasn't quite as I expected. Here is the hole, I dont think I need an arrow to point it out. This is the exhaust side, so in the car is pretty tight against the bulkhead. After a bit of carb cleaner to clean the oil away you can see that the fracture faces taper outwards (technically called a shear lip) indicating that the fracture progressed from inside to outside of the head. This is where it then got interesting. I noticed that some of the bolts holding on the cam cover seemed to be missing There was also a prize mark where someone had split the cam cover from the rest of the cylinder head. I removed the cam cover. The garage must of had it off as two of the bearing shells were missing. Then i lifted out the cam, to be greeted by this: The observant amongst you might spot that one of the roller followers had disappeared. There was various damage, that seemed to have been caused by the broken segment of roller, but then I noticed this little baby: When the follower was flipped back on itself the mark in the casting was an exact imprint of the follower. It seems that someone had tried to tighten down the top cam cover with the follower flipped back out of position. The cam would have been sitting on the follower incorrectly and had forced the back of the follower through the casting. The force had probably shattered the roller follower as these are normaly made from very hard (60HRc) bearing steel. The fact that the follower had been flipped back the right way shows that they had definitely been in there to try and 'clean up' the evidence, yet had still tried to get my sister to pay. The good news about this is that it seems that the overload was caused by the tightening of a bolt, rather than drive from the crank/cambelt, so I am now a bit more happy with the condition of the cambelt. What confuses me is why did they take the cam cover/cam out for an injector change, surely this isn't part of the procedure? Or is it? Had they maybe dropped a washer or something down there and had to remove the cam to get the dropped part out?

Craig - a lot of the stuff they said to you rings true with my experience. They kept trying to muddy the waters with regards to the cars history. For instance when my sister dropped the car off she asked if the injector recall could be connectted to an occasional problem she had with the car not starting. i.e. the car is completely dead hen you turn the ignition, no cranking or anything. The service manager was saying that this was an admission of a pre existing fault and probably a symptom of the hole in the head! Clearly the type of electronic fault she mentioned is nothing to do with a crack in a casting, as well the service manager should know, but he still tried to muddy the water. He also suggested that it was too much of a coincidence that my sister should have a brother that happened to be knowlegable on engine failures and that we had brought the car as a known wrong 'un. With the intention of palming the damage off on an innocent, unsuspecting VW dealership. This argument seems crazy when you consider that they contacted us out of the blue about the recall. I was also told that it would be 'illigal' for them to give me the failed head back. I offered to give them a cheque for the value if I could take it away for a few days and return it. But apparently VW Kassel would notice that it had gone. They couldnt provide me information on how often they actually send shipments of exchange parts back to Germany - I struggle to believe that the giant machine of VW would have noticed if it took them a week longer to send a part back. A lot of the accusations they made were by phone. A running theme of the disagrement was that I would send them a letter / email and they would only respond verbally. The service manager was like a slippery eel. This supprised me from a company with a reputation like VW. I would expect this type of behaviour from some dodgy back-street independent. But I thought the whole justification for £90 an hour labour charges was the customer service and the piece of mind that the job is done properly. What do I want to acheive? To me the main thing is that the cam belt needs to be replaced. It is not designed to carry the load that it would have sustained when the object was forced through the head. Someone above mentioned a slide hammer to remove the injectors. I dont think a stray slide hamer blow could have caused the damage as the hole is right behind the cam lobe. there is just enough room to slide your little finger down the space behind the cam lobe. I'd guess a bolt, small spanner or setting fixture slipped down the back of the lobe and was crushed up against the head when the engine was turned over. I realsise that I could have paid an independent to do the belt for £264.00, but that isnt the point. Why should I be £264.00 out of pocket for a mistake from the main dealer. As Ive stated above, I thought that the reason to go to the dealership was quality service. The second thing I would like to do is to bring this to the attention of VW UK. I cannot believe that the corperate line is to treat customers in this way. Unfortunately there doesnt seem to be an easy way to contact anyone at a decent enough level that might be able to help. Thanks for the responses so far. I will try and take some detailed photos of the weekend to illustrate my point.

Hi, I was a long term member of the forum when I had my Corrado's and always found it really useful. I've got a bit of a problem at the moment - not corrado related - and I thought some on here might have some advice. I also seem to recall that there were a few current/ex VW technicians. Heres the history: My sister has a 56 reg TDI VW golf. It is out of warranty, but she received an email relating to a product recall on injectors. She arranged to take the car in for 4 new injectors FOC. When she arrived to collect the car later in the day the service manager greeted her and told her that they had found a problem with the car while carrying out the injector change. They had found a hole in the cylinder head. He informed her that he couldnt let her drive it away as the hole was rather large and all of the oil would quickly come out. She would have to have it trailered, or he would fit her a new head for £2,500.00. Smelling a bit of a rat my sister decided to have it trailered away to her local garage. My sister knows nothing about cars, so she gave me a call. I used to work for an OEM engine manufacturer - in particular looking at failed engines. I went to inspect the car, with the head still on the block. There was a hole approximately the size of a 50p piece in the rear panel of the cylinder head, behind the No1 lobe of the exhaust cam. In my experience of working in an engine assembly plant the cause of this type of damage is dropping a tool or a part behind the cam, which is then forced through the casting when the engine is turned over. I phoned the dealership to ask them to explain. They called the history of the car into question. Claiming that because during the previous 8 years it had been serviced/repaired at non VW garages and that therefore they couldnt take any responsibility for the damage. When put on the spot they had to admit that the hole was not there previously as there was no gross oil leak (the engine bay would have been covered if you actually started it). They then claimed that previous stress on the engine had weakened it sufficiently that a piece fell out when they slackened the top cover bolts. (It sounds like he was suggesting fatigue) I wrote them a letter stating that in my professional judgement that the cause of the damage was a tool/part left behind the camshaft and that they must replace the head and all assosiated parts. They responded offering to cover 80% of the costs - i.e. my sister still needed to pay £500. I wrote again saying that I would take them to court unless they did the work free of charge. I could have an independent failure report done to confirm that the damage was a one off overload (as in a tool pushed through the casting) rather than a longstanding issue (fatigue), but they would also be liable for the cost of this. They then agreed to do the head free of charge. Even though they did it free of charge they are still refusing to admit that the damage was caused by them or their technician. When we went to pick the car up it turned out that they had re-used the cam belt. I am not pleased about this. If a part had been lodged behind the cam then the force to push it through the casting will have been transmitted through the cam belt. The belt is not designed to do this. We no longer have any confidence in the cambelt and will probably have to get it changed, even though it was done less than a year ago. I have tried the customer complaints department of VW Uk but cant get anywhere. Does anyone have any advice? I know it might seem like I am being picky, we have got a free cylinder head afterall, but in my opinion we should be returned to the position we were in before the incident at the VW dealership - i.e. a cambelt that hasnt been used to force something through the cylinder head! I am also annoyed at the fact that the dealership tried to rip off my sister for £2,500.00 - I wonder how many other non-knowlegable people they have pulled similar tricks on. I am a bit unsure where to go now. I would like to take them to the small claims court, but it would likely get very technical. I dont know if this dispute is applicable for this. Also I would essentialy be an 'expert witness' but I'm not technically independent of the case, although it would be more than my job is worth to lie in a matter such as this. I've also thought about watchdog, but again I think its too specific an issue to my sister and not generic enough (i.e. renault clio bonet releases, BMW alloy wheels) I have the cylinder head in the boot of my car. I wanted to keep the 'evidence' as they were saying it had to be scrapped back to Germany. To 'buy' the scrap part cost me £264.00, but I didnt want them destroying the evidence of what they have done. I can post some pictures of the damage. Is anyone a VW technician, or could they post the rough procedure for changing the injectors. Its the 2.0 TDI engine. I know on my 1.9 passat there is a setting tool, and I suspect that this is what has gone through the cylinder head. Many thanks.....sorry for the long post.

When mine went there was a bit of a smell. Maybe not burning, but certainly of hot coolant......I guess smell is pretty subjective so this is probably all you smelt.

Here you go: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/GOLF-GTI-CORRADO- ... 5d2a444cb6 I am sure places like G werks, jabba etc will sell them too. I would advise paying the extra £20 and getting the thermostatic sandwich plate so that you aren't waiting ages for it to heat up in the winter. In my opinion this is a better solution than the OEM part.

L367 XGB - dusty mauve valver, great looking but with some iffy history J625 RDB - G60, Dragon green. I know where this is but I dontthink the owner uses the forum.

Cheers Gents, I'll inspect the starter if it keeps playing up....it seemed to have stopped by yesterday evening. The thing that was making me suspect the switch was that there is a receipt for a new starter within the last couple of years.

I was the lucky winner of the race to get my hands on the 700 quid G60 in the cars for sale section. Sorry everyone else that was interested! :wave: I picked it up this morning from West London and took it around a congested north circular and up through Hertfordshire, eventually back to Leicester. A good 50 miles in busy traffic on a very hot day and the oil and water temps remained spot on. The car pulled well, has a very good interior and low mileage. Also the seller threw in a Bentley manual and some servicing stuff for free. 97,000 miles, original bbs alloys with new pirelli's seems pretty good. There are a few niggles, the most serious being a rust patch on the roof that has left a couple of pin holes right through the panel. This will need some professional welding and painting I reckon. There is a bit of rust on one of the wings, but as this isn't going to make the inside of the car wet I don't view it as being as serious. There are a few electrical gremlins. The dials sometimes go mental when you indicate left, flickering up and down in tune with the indicators flashing on and off - but it doesn't do it when the hazards are on. Also the indicator doesn't cancel when you indicate left. The starter motor doesn't fire every time you turn the key, and sometimes when it does it makes a crunching noise. I'm hoping that the starter gremlins could be due to an ignition switch possibly? and that the indicator problem is some kind of alignment issue, possibly someone has been in there to look at the ignition and not put the indicator stalk back right? The plan is to go for an MOT and see if it passes, if its goes through cheaply I'll start looking at the gremlins. Finally I'll pay someone to sort the paint. If anyone has any idea about the clocks and dials going mental in time with the indicators please let me know.....

Hi, oil starvation would normally result in the shells becoming very hot and therefore ending up discolored and blue. It is possible that you have a case of oil starvation and you just caught it in the very early stages. The oil light coming on would support this, but then it can be a bit of a chicken and egg situation, 'cause once the crank seizes and the tolerances between the crank and bearings become knackered you are likely to get oil pressure problems. I don't know the exact ins and outs of this engine design, but I would have thought that if one of the mains were to go from oil starvation it would be one of the end ones (main 1 or main 7) as one of these would likely to be fed last. The cap side shell in particular shows some edge loading. If it were a new engine or a newly rebuilt engine I might suspect an alignment issue. When you strip the other shells you should learn more. If they are all on the verge of breaking down then it probably was straight oil starvation. I was quite surprised to hear the big end shells were ok, I would have thought one at least would be fed by that main journal and would have picked up all of the debris from the seizure. have fun!