The engine is fine, for some reason the fuel pump inertia switch was triggered in transit. A new standard engine mount is back on and it appears no other damage done.

Crazy turn of events though, and a serious concern regarding the Vibra technics engine mount. I was only travelling at around a 60mph cruise, but by god does it scare you when the engine drops hard and the spinning driveshaft hits the subframe/wishbone bolts... a more awful sound it would be hard to find. I have had this happen before, but at a much slower speed. I really, really would not want this to happen at 140mph when hurtling down the Spa straights...

Isnt this the 2nd/3rd case of a vibra technics bolt to shear?

Sounds like they need to address an obvious design problem, it could be incredibly dangerous if it fails at high speeds.

Yes i checked the belts,and replaced them just in case.
The belt failed on the outer edge and the timing was spot on,.

Didnt fire up straight away,found no fuel.
The inertia switch had triggered.
Fired up first time,spot on.


Happy now
NEarly ready for a run on the road.

The front gearbox mounting bolt sheared off the first time.
I was sent a bolt and new mount,torqued it up to what it said and havent touched it since.
As above if this fails at speed it could potentially be fatal,so im not risking it anymore .
The design is poor,it needs a stainless sleeve thats tapered to stop this.
The soft alloy casing offers no sheer force for high torque applications.

I will be onto them on Tuesday regarding this and update here.

For now all is good and LE119 lives again.

Good news john , glad to hear it

Excellent news, hope vibra tecnics make a design revision as has already be said could cause a serious accident.

JBT, glad to see no long lasting damage was done

could you send me a pic of the failed mount for some investigation ( if you don't mind ).

I "was" thinking about changing up to some, as Barbz mentioned that these were very good. As my coop goes in later for some fine tuning ( and to look at the manifold issues ), I would be keen to see what is the obvious failure mechanism. It is all ok talking about the odd failure here & there, BUT what happens if this DOES cause a serious injury ? I'm a tad concerned.

HTH

Taz

Jbt is back and moving!!!

Now what have you done to that engine

Happy to hear a good outcome. Could have been really nasty.

Go jbt

Blimey JBT you're a one man melodrama. Glad to see you've put your smiley face back on and are back up and running again, at one point it sounded like you were just about to start shopping around for a German car

Taz the bolts used are 8,8 in strength as stamped on the top.
All fixings must display the strength on them.
These are cheap rubbish bolts,and certainly not designed for these applications.
Im sticking to the stock mounts now as these instances have scared me a little.
And im sure it did do to Fleabag after breaking my car yet again.!!!!!!

Big thanks to Marco for offering to help and quite a few others,.
If i knew it would be 13 hour recovery i wouldve taken you up on it.
But hey,it was a nice night for a breakdown.
And what better way to spend the day off work .

Bring on Spa

Concerned about the vibra tech mounts, as my car had them fitted. My 20vts previous owner, dave_t was the person who originally flagged the failing of the original standard bolt. But this would appear to be the first failing of the uprated bolt?

Maybe it's the 400+ coops that suffer?

Either way, I'm concerned. I've done around 8 track days since I bought the car.

What to do??

Check em or change em mate.

if it was the bolt that sheared, get uprated/improved bolts? can't be too hard to change?

The first issues were the bolts,
Both me and Dave t had them shear off.
This time mine pulled the thread from the casing.

JBT - claim off the AA for the damage AND for the inconvenience of them putting you with a dangerous driver. Claim for the inordinate amount of time it took to recover you. Last time my car broke at Leighton's, it took less than four hours to have me home (25 miles north of Birmingham). That's Green Flag for you - with the right cover, they simply find a recovery company who takes you wherever you need to go in one hit - no loading and unloading along the way.

The AA WILL try to fob you off, but regardless of whether they sub-contracted to another recovery company, your contract is with them and they are liable. I would REALLY go to town on them - let me know if you want any help with a draft letter (on of my specialities is complaint letters - my most famous one got £50k+ of repairs out of Fiat UK)

Did he laugh at you? You big southern fairy

Thanks Nigel,i am about to grab some sleep after near 40 hours without any so if its alright with you i will take you up on that offer and drop you a pm when i havent got tired eyes,.

No but he did mention laughing at a the owner of a green coupe with man boobs after seeing his midfield in the little boys room.

JBT, I am still concerned at the design pal, can you send me a PIC ? please

Gr 8.8 is what we use at work for hum-drum stuff... higher grades is what i'd specify for high stress applications

This NEEDS sorting before someone is hurt.

SIMPLE.

That's not very nice now is it?

Im sure you feel a little inadequate after all these years of me beating you round most of the racetracks in Britain but you deserved that Northern lad

JBT - from the dealings we had with Vibra-Technics when the first bolt problem emerged, I think you'll find he will try hard to rectify the problem - you should at least contact them and give them the opportunity to comment

Hi John, glad to see you've chirped up, you sounded well down last night mate.

Sounds like a recall or at least an upgraded version on maybe an exchange basis is called for.

You've got me worried as i'm running 450lbs/ft of torque and the lack of confidence is affecting my right foot!!!

With your torque Rob it would cause me concern,.
But so far only 3 have failed,2 on my car so there isolated compared to the amount of cars that have them fitted.
That said its a worry for safety reasons.

Glad to hear your car is ok, JBT ... that sounds like a bloody awful few hours you had there

Give Vibratechnics a call about the mount. Hopefully they'll be as keen to come out to you and see the failure itself as they were last time when mine broke. They clearly need to address this somehow.

The best bits come from Fiat. OEM all the way for me.

Thanks Dave,i dont know if they quoted torque or power figures and Vibra are a well known supplier of mounting solutions.
But this is an issue regardless of power and so far we have been lucky not to have a safety issue with the failures.

One thing i have noticed is i had a creaking noise ever since fitting those mountings which Flea also picked up on which got worse and worse.
With the stock mounting on the noise has gone.
Anyone else had this noise on theres ???

rob40 had a creaking noise but cant remember if it was after fitting the mounts.

Rob40 input needed