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Author Topic: 2.0 TFSI Turbo Heatshield - why so many & so big bolts??  (Read 1107 times)

Offline LC5F

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2.0 TFSI Turbo Heatshield - why so many & so big bolts??
« on: August 29, 2021, 10:01:42 pm »
Been wondering why VW have 4 bolts holding the lightweight OEM turbo heat shield onto the head.
2 bolts are twipple square head with M6 thread and the others are a surprisingly beefy 18mm hex head - surely the triple square bolts alone are man enough for this task to support the shield and coolant line.

Does anyone have any thoughts the inclusion of the 18mm bolts?

Offline pudding

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Re: 2.0 TFSI Turbo Heatshield - why so many & so big bolts??
« Reply #1 on: August 31, 2021, 09:18:51 pm »
Interesting.  Also a strange move using triple square bolts just to hold a couple of brackets onto the chain cover!  Triple squares are normally reserved for small bolt head + high torque applications (such as the strut pinch bolt and wheel bearing carrier bolts for example), not little brackets done up to 11nm  :grin:

Maybe VW had a massive box of bolts to use up?  That does seem excessive to hold a heat shield on. Do the 18mm bolts hold anything more substantial else in place as well?  I haven't looked under there yet.


2007 ED30 | 2009 TDI 140 | 2016 BMW 330D

Offline LC5F

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Re: 2.0 TFSI Turbo Heatshield - why so many & so big bolts??
« Reply #2 on: August 31, 2021, 10:32:21 pm »
Maybe VW had a massive box of bolts to use up?  That does seem excessive to hold a heat shield on. Do the 18mm bolts hold anything more substantial else in place as well?  I haven't looked under there yet.
Funny - I was thinking the same;
"Hans - we have a a lot of these really big head, dumpy short length of thread and a beefy captive washer bolts - what can we do with them?"
"Franz - use them in something ridiculously light that is self supporting - it will confuse people in 15 years time!"

These are my left over spare bolts from the head re-build (I can't find a home for the other black bolt??) - the 2 big ones are the ones in question:


They live above the exhaust ports, one between ports of 1 & 2 and other between 3 & 4
-They don't hold anything else except the heat shield and then in turn the coolant line.

Offline pudding

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Re: 2.0 TFSI Turbo Heatshield - why so many & so big bolts??
« Reply #3 on: September 07, 2021, 10:36:38 am »
They look a bit like sump plugs!  So they completely over engineer a heat shield but under engineer the rest of the car  :grin:

Maybe they were worried about the heat shield falling off and the plastic engine cover catching fire  :grin: 


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Offline LC5F

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Re: 2.0 TFSI Turbo Heatshield - why so many & so big bolts??
« Reply #4 on: September 07, 2021, 08:32:39 pm »
Yes - look a lot like sump plugs.
Could it be an emergency supply easily on hand??
A bit like old Porches used to have a spare key hidden in the tail light