Broke motor mount 2004 TDI passenger side: timing belt issue?

Here's my short story: my 2004 tdi wagon started getting louder the other day – thinking I had a problem with my exhaust I continued to drive the car over the weekend. On the fourth I hit a pot hole on the way up a dirt road. The car got very loud and vibrating, I put it in neutral and opened the hood after which it stalled out within a second. Looking at the engine I noticed a tilt and then the lightbulb went off in my head and the blood left my face. I broke an engine mount (thus the vibration and noise) on the passenger side. The engine leaned over and forced the engine mount bracket into the timing belt cover….the car stopped.

Already $150 out now thanks to a tow to a garage that doesn’t have the capacity to work on my TDI (I am in rural Washington up in the North Cascades). Found someone local with a VAG-com and willingness to work on the car. It could be a simple motor mount fix or it could be a tragic end to the internal health of my engine.

MY QUESTIONS: What diagnosis procedure should the mechanic use to determine whether the breaking of the mount and tilting of the engine into the timing belt did any damage to the internal workings of my car?



Once the engine is hoisted and verifying the timing belt looks okay should it be started or does the head need to come off in order to look for internal damage? what/how would internal damage be determined?


Thanks for the help!

if the belt got frayed , check the engine timing . either way you need to investigate further and you don't need VCDS for that

This could turn out OK, or pretty bad.

Put the front of the car up on jackstands. Lift the motor. Remove timing belt cover. Inspect. If timing belt is undamaged, put a 19mm 12 point socket on the crank bolt and rotate clockwise 4 turns. No resistance felt? You probably dodged a bullet.

Timing belt or components damaged? Don't turn anything. Immediately remove the valve cover and inspect the camshaft and lifters. You're looking for damaged cam lobes and cracked/starred/domed/shattered lifters. You'll probably need to use a little brake clean spray to remove the oil to see clearly.

Everything look good under the valve cover? As above, try to rotate the engine GENTLY. No resistance? You probably dodged a bullet, but not absolutely.

Carnage under the valve cover? Head has to come off.

This is a broad guideline. Nothing is absolute. I would still inspect under the valve cover no matter what you find.

Good luck.

ps: You didn't say where the mount broke. If it sheared an ear off the block, dieselgeek sells a very nice repair part for the block.

Random or predictable?

blazewicz said:

...I broke an engine mount (thus the vibration and noise) on the passenger side...

Click to expand...

I experienced a similar mishap right after a timing belt replacement: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=501606
I'm curious: had you (or anyone else) reinstalled that motor mount any time recently, or was this failure out of the blue?

There shouldn't be any damage other than what can be observed. If you have a cracked timing belt cover or something like that, you'll need to check belt path and operation.