Surely a simple job? This car had an engine oil leak from the rocker cover. Book time to replace is just 1 hr. Surely this would be one of those rare few “easy” jobs? As it turned out it wasn’t. Someone had previously tried to solve the oil leak by progressively over tightening the retaining bolts…
The design of the bolt is such that if you tighten too much eventually the bolt bottoms out with the shoulder of the bolt making contact with the head face. There a witness marks indicating this had happened. Any further load on the bolt will cause it to damage the delicate aluminium threads in the head. Heh presto and 13 of them are stripped ! Cue 13 x Helicoils – it just goes to show even the simplest tasks on a car can be a real pain.
The job threw another curved ball when the gaskets which were ordered were incorrect, in the end we used Victor Reinz gaskets which fitted perfectly.
Next thing we have to solve is a strange misfire – it’s been to various specialists and had the parts cannon fired, all to no avail.
Updates to follow next time we see the car…
