Front Cross Member bolts missing!

[Erallus 10]

Hi all,

 

I was hoping to finish taking the front bumper and the rest of the front end off the car today, but it looks as though the following blue circled bolts are missing:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]80569[/ATTACH]

 

Apparently these holds the front cross-member in place when the car is in the service position?

 

I've supported the engine with a jack, but is it still a daft idea to remove the bumper without these in place? I will of course replace them asap, but if they need to be there I won't be able to continue with the job until next weekend (typical inst it :scratch: )

 

Cheers

[Toad 0]

If the engine is securely held with a jack then you may be ok. You might want to support the underside of that beam as well.You might struggle to line the bumper bolts up when it comes to re-fitting if the beam moves.

[Erallus 10]

Cheers Toad,

 

Recon I'll wait, don;t want the beam moving, just to be on the safe side.

[Gti_Jamo 10]

When i've had my bumper off i've never trusted those wee bolts so I just got some nuts and held the large bolts back in place temporally.

[Erallus 10]

aye, not a bad idea, I have no idea how long those bolts have been missing for. Hopefully still available, when I pop to the dealers

[Erallus 10]

Well, the good news is, the bolts are still available and they cost me 98p each from VW.

 

The problem is they won't go in. The one on the left side seems to have no thread, and the one on the right seems to only go in a little, but I can't get it all the way in. (fnarr fnarr)

 

I guess the cross member isn't aligned up properly, or the thread is knackered. Anyone got any experience of this? all the other bolts are seated properly. Guess I'll dismantle it and have a look.

[seanl82 23]

It's very fiddly, you may have to raise the engine a little to line them up properly.

[Erallus 10]

Cheers Sean, I'll be persistent and give it a wiggle :thumbleft:

[Bs6VR6 10]

Hi, as I had my front end off yesterday I may be of some help.

I may get told I'm talking out my are but the blue bolts you've circled do NOT hold the crossmember to the chassis rail they are from what I've used them mearly a way of compressing the front crossmember bushes to allow the larger and vital 17mm bolts to locate through into the bumper brackets, whilst joining the crossmember to the radiator support. Once the 4 larger 17's are in plus the smaller 17(circled in Orange are in, these bolts(the blue ones) are essentially redundant.

I know this after a large bowl of spinach I managed to knacker the thread in the passenger one so removed to check and there is only a small metal washer welded or fixed in a concave on the underside, I'd cracked this thus slackening the thread. I just whacked a nut over the top and tightened down.

Hope this clears it up.

Cheers,

 

Max

[Erallus 10]

Cool, I thought they didn't have much of a thread to go into as it is. The problem is one of the yellow circled bolts is missing, so I'll be getting that replaced before I go any further.

[Bs6VR6 10]

Yeah they are still available as well, bout 70p each from the stealers mate. Best bet if the crossmember and radiator support are coming off is fit the blue bolts off the car and apply securing bolt if thread is shagged. Then offer up, with jack under the front engine mount. I actually strapped a seat belt round the front mount and used a engine crane to lift it up this allowed me to fit jack under crossmember and then jack this up into place without all the weight on it. Get the 4 17mm bolts fitted but leave loose, then the 2 yellow bolts and once all in loose tighten them all up until nipped then work your way round torquing them in tight. There is a bit of play so leaving them loose allows you to get them all lined up properly before clamping them down.

Hope this helps.

 

Max,

Edited February 9, 2015 by Bs6VR6
Spoons for thumbs!

[seanl82 23]

I'd say yes and no to the previous post Max. Trust me, if you remove the bumper, then remove the centre bolt, the crossmember will drop. It's the inner bolt that holds the crossmember to the rad support iirc. I turned mine upside down and stood on the end when I replaced the bushes. It allowed me a couple of turns to mount them together before nipping up to the correct level.

[Bs6VR6 10]

Sean, I think I may of worded it badly but I'm pretty sure I'm agreing with you mate. The bolt in between the two main 17mm bolts only appears to hold the crossmember to the radiator support, the radiator support is then bolted to the chassis itself with the outer most bolt, again a 17mm only shorter. I used this central one to pull the two beams together, I just assumed this is what it was for???

So I assembled those on the floor and then offered the whole lot up. Meant the two main 17mm bolts had plenty of thread on them to start into the bumper brackets. I always make sure I've put a jack under or chains just in case I'm a dick and undo something in a moment of madness. I try to cover my bases as I can be a bit gun ho at times!! The little threaded plate securing that central bolt is pretty waffer thin I wouldn't trust it.

Hope that's clearer!

 

Max,

[Erallus 10]

Very Clear, Cheers both for the input. I'll have another crack it it, I'll be collecting the missing yellow outer bolt shortly.

 

Ian

[Erallus 10]

Just to come back to this one:

 

Managed to get the bumper off, supported the cross member, so it should be okay to get back on.

 

Does anyone know what the torque settings are for all the bolts in the bumper bracket? (or most importantly the four main bumper bolts)

 

I can't seem to find the info in the Bentley service manual. Is it me or is this info missing from it?

 

Cheers

[corrado wannabe 13]

My bentley shows the following:

 

Bracket to bumper 25nm (18ft/ld)

Bracket to Body 85nM (63lb/ft)

 

Assuming your talking about the front bumper.

 

HTH

 

Dougie

[Erallus 10]

Cheers Dougie,

 

Indeed I am, what page is that on by the way? I must have missed it.

 

Thanks very much for the info.

[corrado wannabe 13]

No problem.

 

It's section 63.2/63.3

 

Im not sure of the page number as it is an electronic version I have.

 

Cheers

 

Dougie