Expensive repair?

[GazP]

On her way home from work my wifes 2008 2.0 petrol Focus suddenly stopped with no drive after a loud bang. AA said a driveshaft had broken, an engine mount had failed causing the engine to drop splitting the coolant hose as it did so. Car is now at a local garage waiting for them to work on it. My question is, is this likely to be repairable and cost effective compared to the age/value of the car?

[GazP]

Ah well, answering my own question; garage have assessed car and there is an enormous amount of damage in the engine bay. An engine mounting bolt had worked loose, ripping the mount from the casing but damaging the casing in the process. Engine has then dropped down, damaging the driveshaft, ripping out all air-con and coolant hoses. It's a mess! Needs a replacement engine, and all the other parts mentioned. Add labour charge to that and final cost will be more than car is worth.

All because of a bolt!!!!

[JONATHAN_11_80]

Why does it need a new engine?  Do you have photos of the damage.  Just be aware the garage may make it sound worse than it is.  I suspect it needs a new engine mount, driveshaft and hoses.   I'd fix that myself cant see the threads in the chassis leg being damaged.

[isetta]

i know it's easy for me to say this after the event. I would have thought when it was getting loose, before final drop down, there would have been some sign of an impending problem, like clonking or something to warn that there was something amiss.

[GazP]

Thanks for the replies.

I don't have pics but have seen the damage. The mounting bolts thread stripped in the engine casing, and there's damage to the casing from when the engine moved. The casing needs replacing but they said you can't buy those separately. They showed me the damage in the engine bay and it is as bad as they say, made a proper job of it!!! Couldn't SEE a loose bolt in the mount when stationery as it was sitting flush like the other bolts. There was a slight rattle over bumps but we put that down to a suspension bush on its way out, as that had happened in the past.

They said it was a good job it didn't go on a motorway (it went in traffic on the commute home from work). Don't even want to think about that, as we were on a motorway in the car just the other week!

[JW1982]

Stripped threads within the engine casing can easily be repaired by installing threaded inserts.

When installed correctly the bolted joint of the engine mount and the engine will even be stronger than it ever was before. Stripped threads are no reason to write off the engine.

 

[GazP]

Not as simple as just a stripped thread I'm afraid. When the mount failed and the engine moved the damage to the casing was so bad it can't be repaired by just putting a new insert in. Thanks for the suggestion.

Went to the garage today and discussed what to do next. They didn't feel ok with fitting a recon engine, fair enough, it's their reputation and the condition of the engine would be out of their hands. As we know our engine is ok apart from a casing where the mount goes, they are going to buy another car (they break cars too so not a problem for them), and swap the damaged casing. They will then fit new mounts, pipework etc. Yes it might cost almost as much as the car is currently worth, but as many of you might appreciate we all have an attachment to our cars. They have also said their work will have a warranty on it, and that they wouldn't repair it "on the cheap" which meant it might happen again.

We have used this garage before and they are good at their work.