For the last few thousand miles, I had noticed a knocking noise coming from the engine bay, when I released the clutch and it reached 'biting' point. It didn't sound like anything serious and had no effect on the performance of the car whatsoever, but me being me, I had to investigate further.
Anyway after a quick rummage around in the engine bay with a mechanic friend of mine, we managed to isolate the knocking noise to the o/s top engine mount, but after further inspection there seemed nothing of any grave concern that 'stood out' so I thought I'd just carry on regardless.
One thing I then started to notice, that was the 'knock' was far less intense or sometimes even 'not there' when the engine bay was cold and yet when the car got up to temperature it became progressively louder. After a few hundred miles I got f**ked off with this and decided to go about getting it replaced.
I spoke to two VW dealers and a mean lump sum price for the whole job was around £230+vat. I then spoke to an 'independent' local garage to me and the price was £160+vat. I decided that both prices were 'over the top' high, or at least that's what I presumed. The VW dealers told me the estimated 'repair time' to do the job was between 60 and 90 minutes, the 'Independent' suggested 60 to 75 minutes.
After some deliberation I decided to buy a second hand mount, which I found on Ebay from a written off 2008 Gti, costing £20 including delivery. I then set about asking my mechanic friend whether or not he would be interested in a 'cash job' and if he had any idea on the time it would take to do said job. He duly obliged and said he would charge me £20 per hour, but was unsure on how long the job would take. I decided to take the risk, as I trusted him.
I took the car to him yesterday and within ten minutes he had up on ramps a jack supporting the engine and had the 'coolant reservoir' and 'washer fluid reservoir' out and was unbolting the mount.
Once out, he passed it to me and there was to say the least 'excessive' play in the bushing. In comparison to the 'new' one which was altogether completely stiff and rigid. (It made sense that when the engine bay was hotter the rubber bushing would expand causing the 'knock')
I passed him back the 'new' mount and within another ten minutes the mount was bolted on, along with the 'coolant reservoir' and 'washer fluid reservoir', jack off
ramp down and bonnet lid shut and it cost me a grand total of £10!
I couldn't believe my luck to be honest, there I was sh!tting bricks about having to fork out a minimum of £190 including vat and I'd manage to get the problem sorted for £30, plus an hour of my time. No 'knocking' noise present at any temperature, cold or hot.....BONUS!
