Scirocco Central

So I bought a 2009 1.4 TSI 160 Scirocco
Fast forward just 2 weeks later, must have been doing like 10mph when the engine suddenly went into limp mode. I turned it off and tried to start it again but it wouldn't turn over. Looked inside the bonnet and found the crankshaft bolt had come lose and the crankshaft pulley had literally come off

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I had the vehicle recovered to a VW specialists, waiting to hear back from them.
In situations like this, is it highly likely that the engine has been damaged what happened? Car was a private sale and not even sure how a crankshaft pulley bolt just comes off like that?

Now I've read many horror stories about the early 1.4 tsi models and timing chain failure but this is completely diffrent! Nightmare!

is it highly likely that the engine has been damaged what happened

By what happened*

Look through receipts to see if any previous engine work has been done.

No idea on the damage until its stripped down unfortunately
Worth getting a VW specialist to give an estimate on the cost of repair compared to a engine swap

Unfortunately it is almost certain you have bent valves and will need a cylinder head rebuild :/

The pulley bolt secures the lower timing chain sprocket on the crankshaft. With the bolt out the sprocket is likely to have jumped out of its retaining lug and the timing chain would have stopped turning - resulting in piston(s) smashing into the valves. The Pistons are probably ok, but there will be bent valves.

Because it's a 2009 160 worth bearing in mind also that the cylinders may not last forever either

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blower wrote:Unfortunately it is almost certain you have bent valves and will need a cylinder head rebuild :/

This is excatly what the garage said. No compression in the cylinders and bent valves. Now they want £700 to completely strip the engine and check the extent of the damage to see if the Engine can be rebuilt.

They also did say it looked like recent work had been carried out on the engine and the bolt might not have been tightened up enough hence why it came out.

My money would be on a previous repair because of the misfire / loss of compression problem on these engines. You may have been sold a turkey - assume you don't have any comeback against the seller?

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How can it have no compression and bent valves?
This belt doesnt drive the cam shaft, it's powered by the camshaft.
Or am i seeing something wrong.

Roy_01 wrote:How can it have no compression and bent valves?
This belt doesnt drive the cam shaft, it's powered by the camshaft.
Or am i seeing something wrong.

Yes the crankshaft pulley wheel drives the auxiliary/accessories belt. However behind that pulley, inside the timing chain cover, on the same shaft - i.e. the crankshaft is the sprocket which drives the timing chain.
All this is held tightly together by the pulley bolt - once that comes loose, the pulley will fall off/stop spinning, the timing chain sprocket will also be loose and will bounce off its retaining lug on the crankshaft - so it stops spinning and hence the timing chain will stop...and well you know what happens then.

Thanks blower for explaining, didn't know it was constructed this way.

Blower described the mechanism spot on. What he didn't say is that it's a very stupid design, without a retaining lug or some sort of fail safe mechanism. We had in our garage 2 Golfs with the exact same problem, the bolt had come loose and the chaindrive went bananas damaging both engines.
Indeed, if previous work had been done and the mechanic did not put a new bolt and applied the VERY high torque(170nm + 180 degrees), it WILL come loose.
Take care where you repair your engine!

Hi, just to resurrect this thread.

My 2013 1.4 tsi had an identical failure.

Was driving about 10mph when I lost all power, and there was a thud.

Turned out the crankshaft pulley detached itself and was hanging loose. I tried restarting the car but had no luck, and having been stripped the valves are all bent.

Sold the car now but its a shame so much damage was done in such a quick time period.

Interestingly the aux belt and pump were done 30k miles earlier, and I'm assuming when they bolted it back in it was loose based on comments on this thread.

I don't know if this adds value to anyone but the car went from running perfect to dead for such a silly failure...