Head bolts

[Steve_PD]

Ive reused serval 'stretch bolts' on my car time and time again with no problems

[AudiA8Quattro]

Ive reused serval 'stretch bolts' on my car time and time again with no problems

So have i. But i probably wouldn't risk it with head bolts 

[Dolly]

muppet

[glove]

a marine engineer hey, so a Mk3 then yes or maybe a mk4 as you are a tad sensative I see 

No I have Mk2 1,6 carburator Madison 1990  which is the car I bought in 2005y which in time evolved in to 1,8 mono injection with a live data from thw ECU,115hp and GTI suspention and alot ore things. And MK3 1,6 Europ 1996 full electric pack which I bought for my father in 2007y. Since then the two cars are serviced and maintained only by me and no one else.

 This is my car,


 unfortunately I dont have a picture of my fathers car.

[JC]

Ive reused serval 'stretch bolts' on my car time and time again with no problems

if you changed bolts every time your car gets taken apart you would be REALLY skint 


 

[danny_p]

should you reuse then = NO  can you get away with reuseing them sometimes = YES

just duffing the bolts back in is asking for problems tho,  if you accuraty measure there lengths you can work out if they are reuseable   some engine i've worked on actualy state the lengths of head bolts, main bolts, big end bolts and frount pully bolts.

take an old 1.8 8 v motor    you can doff a head down on one of them with 2nd hand bolts  and not even bother with a torque wrench if you want,  even just rattel them down with air inpacter and then add 1/4 turn  as long as you work from the inside out.   just accsept the fact that there is a chance you may well have to take it to bits and do it again  and possobly replace more bits if it goes wrong.   it's all a question of odds

i can defatly tell you that on an E46 bmw you cannot reuse the head bolts and you really dont wan the chance of haveing to take the had off and do thr gasket again for the price of them.  on a mk2 gti you may choose to take the chance the gasket is only a tenner aand the heads back on in less than 2 hours

[Diamond Hell]

Ok boys you are making fun on me, that is not very good.

Must be one of those British things - not taking any old line of nonsense from some random goon posting on the interweb, declaring himself to have all sorts of qualifications and experience.

You may have lots of experience, but you are running a 1.8 8V Golf2... with single-point injection, apparently.  Even if you have a lot of knowledge about the 1.8 8V it's not exactly cutting edge.  Why would we believe your views on stretch bolts?  We don't know you, or anything about you.  There are people who are a lot more qualified with this audience who are saying quite different things to you.

[Thom89]

And still, no one has mentioned lubricating the threads to achieve the correct torque figure in the first place! old or new bolts...

Yes, head bolts should be replaced as specified the head bolts are probably the most critical bolts on the whole car , going through many thousands of heat cycles, they are well abused!

The reality though, a high percentage of Garages, and DIYers will take the gamble and not bother swapping them, usually it being down to price, new bolts can add quite an extra chunk to the bill, not fitting them is fine, as long as the customer is aware that the repair, may not last as long as it should do, either the HG failing earlier than normal, or damage to the threads in the block on extraction... you get what you pay for, simple as that!

If I was rebuilding an engine, I would never consider NOT fitting new or uprated bolts, together with all the other critical bolts that should be replaced

Thom

[Sam]

Compaired my new ones to my old ones today, no idea what is meant to 'stretch' as all the threads slotted together perfectly with no light gaps when held up....having said this, I still would never re-use old ones for the sake of £1 a bolt 

[glove]

.........

 I am not going to prove you what is my qualification, diploma and degree! I don`t intend to teach you how to tie your shoes!
 I expressed my opinion  and all of you with some exceptions started to argue. I know better what I can do and what I know.

 And about my car,  it is my decision do make it like this, I am not looking for cutting edge of technology and this I will not going to explain to you. I know my car like my right hand and I can fix it without problem.

 Thank you all for the time and have a good day, this was my last post in this forum. I am not planning to argue every time