Help! Advice on engine mount bolt needed!

[ex-Chinese Dave]

I was torquing up the engine mount bolts on the driver side and the final bolt that I went to check seemed to be loose. All the other bolts were correctly torqued. On this one as soon as I put the to wrench on I could feel it was loose. I tried it with a normal ratchet and it was very easy to turn. I took the bolt out and I noticed there was some swarf on the bolt which is obviously from the thread. The bolt itself is in good condition and there’s no damage to it.
Obviously, this needs sorting, but how urgent is it?

 

[Flob]

Its only holding your engine in the car mate, nothing important.

(its also very easy to fix with a helicoil kit)

 

[Louis]

it's over engineered anyway. Be reet on 2

 

[ex-Chinese Dave]

I’m just looking at helicoil kits now. Can anyone recommend what I would need exactly? I really want to get this ordered tonight and get this sorted ASAP.

 

[Mr Trailer Man]

Goes into the bottom half of the upper cambelt cover, you could just get one of them.

 

[ex-Chinese Dave]

M10 x 45 seems to be the bolt size.
Local motor shop has a kit so I'm off there now...

 

[Flob]

If its expensive check amazon too

 

[TheBandit]

15 seconds of ugga-duggas should sort it out

 

[Louis]

Pop a longer bolt in

 

[ex-Chinese Dave]

So a very rapid repair has been carried out. I followed the instructions on how to clean up the hole, tap it, and then fit the coil. Everything was going well until I tried to remove the coil insert tool. It was very tight and when I took it out, I could see that the coil had marked it a little. All the swarf and debris was cleaned out from the hole before I started. I made sure that the coil had gone down further enough to connect it to the engine part. When I came to re-insert the bolt, which wasn’t damaged at all, everything was okay and then it started to go very tight. I removed it several times to check that the thread wasn’t damaged on the bolt. I gave it a coating of lubricant and then tried to refit it. It was extremely tight and as I was screwing it down, I checked that the torque was correct and it was already over the recommended amount. But at this point the washer had not sat tight on the top engine mount. It wasn’t getting any harder to screw down but it was difficult. I continued until the washer was compressed on the top engine mount with no loose play Everything is tight now, but if I’m being honest, I don’t feel 100% happy with the way that it went. I’ve not fitted a helicoil before so I’m just wondering if that’s extreme bit of tightness at the end is normal. I know that sometimes if you tighten a bolt and it’s not going into the recess where it should sit, it will actually start to lift the item that you are trying to tighten down. I’ve taken some photos and although everything looks okay. I’d like your opinions on this. I’ll take it out for a short drive later and hopefully I’m not calling the RAC.

 

[Louis]

Helicoil not fitted right.

It'll be fine, but expect it to come out with the bolt when you remove it next time.

That gap is normal

 

[MAXRUNDOWN]

You did snap the tang off the end of the coil once it was inserted didn't you?

 

[Louis]

Id have also removed the mount first...

 

[ex-Chinese Dave]

You did snap the tang off the end of the coil once it was inserted didn't you?

When I screwed it in I looked inside the hole and couldn’t see the tang, so it must’ve have broken off.

 

[ex-Chinese Dave]

Id have also removed the mount first...

Agreed. It was down to time and I only had 1 hour to pick up the kit and do the job.

 

[ex-Chinese Dave]

Helicoil not fitted right.

It'll be fine, but expect it to come out with the bolt when you remove it next time.

That gap is normal

Yeah, you just get a feeling that everything is not 100%, usually when you have no time. It went in very easy but when it went into the engine part I just knew that it wasn’t perfect even though it screwed in easy.

Glad you think the gaps ok….test drive now….

 

[Mr Trailer Man]

You need to take the mount off first so you can see when the helicoil is in properly 😂

Need to support the sump with a jack.

 

[Brigsy]

Need top part of mount off to helicoil defo. Its done now so id leave it, get a spare lower cam cover for next time it comes off and change it.

 

[Louis]

You did drive the helicoil all the way down into the lower bracket, right?

How did you do this? Did you drill both out, and tap????

 

[ex-Chinese Dave]

I’m not happy with it because in some situations I can still hear a clicking noise from that area. It’s not doing it all the time so it could be something minor such as the usual top mount click. I’m really tempted to do it again in the morning but just worried in case I can’t get the coil back out.

 

[ex-Chinese Dave]

You did drive the helicoil all the way down into the lower bracket, right?

How did you do this? Did you drill both out, and tap????

Yes. Tapped all the way down.

 

[ex-Chinese Dave]

You did drive the helicoil all the way down into the lower bracket, right?

How did you do this? Did you drill both out, and tap????

If both are threaded they won’t tighten, right? The bolt has a fitted washer that spins freely meaning that the compression is between the helicoil and the bolt head/washer. This will be why it was so tight. I need to remove the tapped thread in the top bracket.

It’s nearly 1am and my brain just said “Oh, before you sleep let me just say…”

 

[Mr Trailer Man]

Top bit isn't threaded, it's just an open hole.

 

[ex-Chinese Dave]

Yes, I checked the other holes once I removed the top bracket. Also, even though the top bit has a thread on it now it’s not big enough to hold the bolt, so the bolt is still loose in the top bracket. I think the problem was definitely the helicoil not fitted correctly. I’m just in the middle of redoing it all now.

 

[TheBandit]

Helicoil the helicoil

 

[Mr Trailer Man]

Yes, I checked the other holes once I removed the top bracket. Also, even though the top bit has a thread on it now it’s not big enough to hold the bolt, so the bolt is still loose in the top bracket. I think the problem was definitely the helicoil not fitted correctly. I’m just in the middle of redoing it all now.

You want it to sit about half a turn/thread below the surface.

 

[ex-Chinese Dave]

Everything is back together now. It took awhile to clean out the debris from the hole and the tap needed to clean up the threads quite a bit, but the heli coil is in position as shown on the photo, but I did give it another couple of turns to sit it a little lower. The tang was knocked off and then everything was put back together. Strangely, when I put the bracket back on it seemed that the engine had settled out of position. I’ve no idea how this happened. What I did was Jack it up a little higher and then as I put the bolts back in I made sure I pulled the engine forward so that I could screw the bolts in with my fingers and not with a ratchet. I did this for all three bolts and the nut. I then torqued everything up to the recommended settings and went for a test drive. There’s no strange noises that I haven’t heard before so I’m guessing that I just discovered this loose bolt even though it wasn’t causing any problems or making any noises. At least it’s a problem solved even if I didn’t know about it before I checked. Maybe the moral of the story is to not look for things.

I now want to go through all the suspension nuts and make sure they are all tight and also check the top mounts. We all know how notorious the top mounts are for making noises even if we have OEM parts fitted. Is there a procedure for checking the top mounts are tight? These were only fitted last year but I remember on my 182 when it was almost new that it had to go back to Renault for them to change the top mounts.

 

[Matt Cup]

I now want to go through all the suspension nuts and make sure they are all tight and also check the top mounts. We all know how notorious the top mounts are for making noises even if we have OEM parts fitted. Is there a procedure for checking the top mounts are tight? These were only fitted last year but I remember on my 182 when it was almost new that it had to go back to Renault for them to change the top mounts.

Just leave them 😂