Sheered Nut

I recently scuffed a curb, on the front near side, and did notice a slight change in the steering off the car.

Yesterday i got an oil warning light appear, so I pulled over and topped up the oil continued on my jorney.

Because of the low oil light I had a look under the bonnet and noticed on the left hand side of the top of the suspension there should be three nuts, well one off them has sheered off and gone,..

Any ideas, is this an urgent repair, is it possible to just get out the remainder of the nut and replace, or is this worth a trip to Tony, at A2`s...


Thanks in advance.. John.

it is always worth a visit to a2cars lol it sounds like it is the top mount that needs replacing as this is where those studs attach to. Tony can also inspect the suspension to see if anything else has been knocked out of shape. cheers mike

Thanks for the advice Mike, having researched further on the site, as you do, I did have a cambelt change 2000 miles ago by Audi, and I believe these bolte have to be replaced and correctly torqued when doing that job,

So i might pop it back into Audi`s and see what they have to say, maybe the curbing had nothing to do with it, I dont honestly know..

Axit said:

Thanks for the advice Mike, having researched further on the site, as you do, I did have a cambelt change 2000 miles ago by Audi, and I believe these bolte have to be replaced and correctly torqued when doing that job,

So i might pop it back into Audi`s and see what they have to say, maybe the curbing had nothing to do with it, I dont honestly know..

Click to expand...

They're hardly likely to say "oh yeah must of been us" more likely an answer would be the kerbing caused it and that'll be ££££££ irrespective of the real cause. Cynical perhaps but c'est la vie.

Hi the strut top bolts/nuts don't need to be removed for the cambelt. I agree with emmet that they will deny all knowledge. Cheers mike

I`m gonna phone Tony,

thanks Guys,... John.

Having contacted A2cars today, he warned me if one of the suspension bolts has sheared the car maybe unfit to drive, to my dismay.

So I jacked up the car and had a look, the nut has nothing to do with the suspension, and when simply following the suspension arm up through the body it was no where near my sheared nut, thankfully.

My sheared nut seems to be one of the three which secures a triangular base plate of the offside engine mount to the chassis, I have tried to attach an image but unsure if it will appear on the post,.

So will this engine mount have been removed to change a cambelt if so Audi could be liable, if not how urgent is this job ?

Thanks again John.

hi John

Pictures paint a thousand words .

I misunderstood the "triangular plate on the suspension" you described on the phone today to be the lower control arm - hence my warning not to drive the car.

Your picture shows the right hand engine mount which is removed when a timing belt is replaced. The way forward would be to drill the remaining stud out and clean the threads before fitting a new bolt. The old bolt would have probably been over-tightened and sheared. Goes to show that even trusted dealers abuse the car. Manufacturers specify torque settings specifically for this reason. I'm proud to say that we adhere to strictly to the technical data and always tighten to correct torque and replace nuts and bolts as determined by the manual.

If you fancy a drive to Milton Keynes, we have the equipment, expertise and parts to effect a repair on your A2.

blue skies
tony

Thanks for the advice Tony, and the correct spelling for, "sheared", I`m happy that my problem is not as severe as it sounded by my explanation, I did think the centre of the engine mount was the top of the suspension arm, until i looked properly. And Im also pretty sure that it was Audi who overtightened the stud, cambelt 1800 miles ago in February, but rather than going through that ordeal, this looks like a job I could probably tackle. I will sarcastically mention it when ordering a replacement bolt/stud..

I`m still looking for an excuse to pass the car through your experienced hands, for a bit of piece of mind, there are a few out of sight rusty bits and missing fixings that I`m sure you will have a better solution for than my bungee straps and string system which I`ve been contemplating.

I have to somehow justify the 150 mile round trip, at present I need a temperature sender, which is not enough, but if I botch this stud removal, I will see you soon...

Thanks again Tony,... John.