UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Right first off, i suddenly got a loud tapping noise which sounded like hydraulic tappets when they have no oil. This firstly was just when the pedal was half pressed, but got worse to the point of it doing it whenever the pedal was pressed. It seems to not be pulling like it should either.

I took off the rocker cover to have a look and when putting it back on have snapped one of the rocker bolts.

Does anyone have a clue about a) what this noise could be b) how the hell am i going to sort this snapped rocker bolt out.

I really need to get this sorted as soon as possible as i really depend on this car. Thanks very much

the noise may well be a blown exhaust manifold gasket - had trouble like that myself before, though yours must be a bit more advanced if it's sapping power?
it's pretty cheap for a garage to do, or you can probably do it yourself without much hassle if you can get hold of the thing without buying a whole new gasket set. be sure to clear the mating faces up first before fitting the new one though - i dont think the garage did that to mine first time, and the replacement blew straight out again within 30 miles!

for the snapped bolt, there's others who'll know more than me, but you can try grabbing onto the remnants really tightly with some mole grips, or get hold of a dedicated drilling-out kit. if you need to drive to get these things you can probably get away with some tight duct-taping over the centre of the rocker cover

Cheers mate, ill go av a look at the manifold in a sec.

get someone to bung the exhaust while ur heads in the engine bay, usually does the trick to see whether its blowing...

not for long mind lol

As for the rocker bolt, you should be able to get it tapped out, have you tried drilling it? they usually work themselves out quite easily

Take it it happened when you were doing it up right?

Lol yeah... it was chuckin' it down so i was like "ah well nothin' under the rocker cover" did it up with out using a torque wrench and snapped it...School boy error!! should've known better! Thanks for the help mate Had to order a new bolt from vw...its 4 bloody quid! for a bolt...thats a thin piece of metal shorter than your little finger lol

yeah lol

i did the same thats why i said it

Check in the haynes manual, they get done up to a ridiculous amount of torque, im suprised it even holds the rocker still let alone sealed!!