Evening everyone,
Just thought id share an eye opener with you. I bought my 6R in November after nearly 2 years of finding the right car, colour and more importantly price. Needless to say it is my pride and joy. Anyway... As i have done with my previous 3 gti's i have tended to the maintenance of the car before any modifications etc. So soon after purchase i got my DSG oil changed at my local dealer and i then intended to get my cambelt and water pump down too. But because of the sizeable amount of money that i had spent i decided to buy GAP insurance as a precaution. This unfortunately left my funds low. With me being part of the VAG world for a number of years i have made friends and acquaintances along the way. So i contacted a reliable source who managed to get me a genuine cambelt and water pump kit at cost price. And then asked about to see if i could get somebody to fit it. The person that offered is a well respect VW technician at the same local dealer that i had my DSG oil changed. Anyway, i dropped it off and it was completed a few hours later. £70 swapped hands and all has been well until Thursday night. I pulled up outside my house and the engine started making a strange noise from the cambelt side. I immediately turned off the engine a few seconds after recording the noise on my phone.
http://i1279.photobu...zps6vvj41wm.mp4
I made a few phone calls ranging from my parts man, the person who did the cambelt and Mark Ash at Awesome. The replies ranged from faulty (new) water pump to an alternator to a roller bearing from my techy. Mark's 1st reply was turn the engine off, dont not start it under and circumstances (excellent advice as it happens) I arranged for the car to be transported on the back of a wagon to Awesome, Manchester.
After an inspection i had an convo with Mark with pictures of exactly what had happened.
A bolt had come free and got wedged in the plastic trim at the top of the pulley and was rubbing on the belt. Lady luck was on my side it seems. Seems like an almost impossible stroke of luck that it got wedge where it did without occurring catastrophic engine fail.
Mark recommended a cambelt change just to be sure that the bolt hadnt caused any damage to the belt.
Just after lunch yesterday the tech at Awesome started the fix, a flurry of txts and picture msgs arrived from Mark.
At that point realisation of how the cambelt didnt snap and how im not now looking at a new engine or rebuild at this point is beyond me.
Essentially what has happened is the bolt had come loose. Bounced around the near the cambelt and pulleys and then got wedged in the plastic trim. Damage was some how limited to the cambelt, 2 pulleys which had missing teeth and gouges in and finally the water pump. I picked it up 3 hours later and is proudly sat cleaned and sparkling outside my house. Ive had some really challenging times recently but it seems that lady luck had her arse planted on my nappa leather on Thursday night.
My lesson learnt not to skimp on mates rates/foreigners prices and take it to an organisation that can guarantee their work.
I honestly cant not thank particularly Mark Ash at Awesome and the efficiency of the tech lads enough. Mark's advice over the years has been nothing short of spectacular. And because of that he will have a customer for the life of me owning VAG motors.
