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[al brown]

Hi everyone, if this is better suited elsewhere please move it.
I just wanted to pass on what I found today while working on my car. It has been stood for 2 months while I was away and after 5 weeks stood still it decided to spill oil on the floor, not sure if it was box or engine as it doesnt smell/look like auto fluid but then it has been eating into the tarmac for last month. Anyway, as with old cars there is oil/muck/dirt everywhere, so I decided to clean it up first and found oil from the back of the passenger side cam cover, so of it came to have a new gasket fitted, which is when I found the loose bolt.
Rear most bolt that secures the camshaft. It was half way out, dont know how. After checking 4 others were found to be incorrectly torqued, ie. loose. The others were only noticeable after torquing them, where as the 1st one was almost completely unscrewed.
Am still chasing the leak from underneath, have it all cleaned and am waiting for oil to show in the drip tray, but wanted to let you all know about my bolts. Just to confirm, I have never worked on the cams in the time I have had the car which is about 9 years now.


Al

[feeutfo]

Since joining, I remember one other similar post. Since then I always cheque the torque setting on the cam caps while the covers are off.

Never found anything less than the specified 8nm though.

Was the engine particularly noisy on the top end?

[Andy B]

Since joining, I remember one other similar post. Since then I always cheque the torque setting on the cam caps while the covers are off.

Never found anything less than the specified 8nm though.

Was the engine particularly noisy on the top end?

I ho[e you used a calibrated torque wrench ............... 

[doz]

I keep a little 3/8th torque wrench for these low amounts. Doing the head bolts on a VW aircooled motor the first stage is only 7 ft/ib.

[Andy B]

..... Doing the head bolts on a VW aircooled motor the first stage is only 7 ft/ib.

Which is just a nip .............. even without a torque wrench. I bet VW didn't use a placcy rocker cover. 

[al brown]

Since joining, I remember one other similar post. Since then I always cheque the torque setting on the cam caps while the covers are off.

Never found anything less than the specified 8nm though.

Was the engine particularly noisy on the top end?

No, no noise to speak of, other bolt of same cap was tight so would be fairly!?! secure I would think. My point of the post was I dont remember reading anything similar and wanted to alert others just in case. Would have been quite costly quite soon, and like you have said, worth checking if you have cam covers off (quite often across the omega fleet). Its 2 mins to check while you are there anyway.
If it saves 1 person its worth it.

[al brown]

Since joining, I remember one other similar post. Since then I always cheque the torque setting on the cam caps while the covers are off.

Never found anything less than the specified 8nm though.

Was the engine particularly noisy on the top end?

I ho[e you used a calibrated torque wrench ............... 

not quite one white knuckle..........check

[flyer 0712]

Had the same trouble when i had a 2.5 miggy 1998.while the cam covers were off and i was cleaning the surfaces my hand caught the bolt on the passenger side cam  bearing and it moved...i checked all of them and found 4 on that one side were so loose they were nearly falling out...so retorqued them.but never did find out why they had come loose..