Thats because Mk4's don't belong in a scrappy!
and I've had all my bolts off on the other side now to make sure they weren't loose too, and the other carrier bolt didn't take much to crack off, so i've now loctite'd all the bolts (a novice fitting mistake i know!) and i'm just going to buy the remaining bolts tomorrow, then i should be on my way

Also the knocking noise i heard the other day that i posted about seems to have stopped

so it looks like i had plenty of warning before failure

though, it did sound like it was coming from the rear - passenger side corner, not the drivers side.
Also i thought i should add - i was wrong about what the bolt looked like too haha (excuse the ruler that looks like it belongs to a 5 year old, it was the only one i could find)
