Thread: TD5 Oil Pump Girdle Install - 2 Bolts Spinning when trying to torque @ 10ftlb

The bolts for the centre appear to need to be longer than the sides. If so, have the longer bolts been fitted to the side somewhere?

Originally Posted by sadil

oil pump girdle

The workshop manual identifies this as a stiffener plate with integral oil pump and describes its function as:

The stiffener plate assembly provides lower engine block rigidity and utilises dowels to align it to the bottom of the cylinder block.

Sounds pretty important that it provides even support and comes under a bit of load, hence the 22 bolts. I have not had to remove this panel but I assume all 22 bolts were the same length otherwise the problem would be self evident as Graeme suggested. If that is the case, I would repair the threads with Helicoils (or Power Coils - slightly cheaper). An alternative may be to remove the offending bolts and measure the hole depth, checking to see how far it is threaded and that the holes are blind (you wouldn't want any bits pocking up into the works). You may be able to fit longer bolts but I would make sure that they are of the same grade, usually grade 8.8 but check the bolt head markings. If they are M8 bolts I would want at least another 9mm of clean thread beyond the damaged thread. Good luck with it.

I had a look on Google and it is clear that there should be 12x6x40MM bolts and 10x6x 25MM bolts.
Have you tried to put 25MM bolts where 40MM should be?

Regards PhilipA