Broken exhaust manifold gasket = squeal at cold start?

[NC2014GTI]

Hi all, here’s photo I took of my exhaust manifold. My car has had a very high squeal/ squeak for about 5-10 seconds at every cold start for awhile now. This looks to my like a bad gasket and soot above the stud. From videos I’ve compared with on YouTube of people who had broken exhaust studs, this sounds exactly the same as my car. Is it possible for the stud to be broken, but the nut still attached like my picture?
Thanks for any insight!

 

[BudgetPhoenix]

Is that the driver side stud? It's known to commonly break on these cars and it's notorious for being incredibly difficult to fix.

 

[Grabbit]

Is that the driver side stud? It's known to commonly break on these cars and it's notorious for being incredibly difficult to fix.

Yes, that's the driver side. The passenger side is near impossible to fix if it breaks off in the head due to the part of the head the cam/timing cover bolts to. Ask me how i know.....

To the OP, whomever does the work on this needs to soak these in some quality penetrating oil for a few days. Try Aerokroil or equivalent and go slow..... Like snail slow. May even want to put some heat on that nut.

 

[NC2014GTI]

Yes- this is the driver's side. I'm assuming the stud is already broken, since the gasket is loose and there is soot coming out.

 

[BudgetPhoenix]

Yes, that's the driver side. The passenger side is near impossible to fix if it breaks off in the head due to the part of the head the cam/timing cover bolts to. Ask me how i know.....

To the OP, whomever does the work on this needs to soak these in some quality penetrating oil for a few days. Try Aerokroil or equivalent and go slow..... Like snail slow. May even want to put some heat on that nut.

I thought it was the driver side one that is the extremely difficult one to reach? Could be both.


But TC if you search broken exhaust stud on here you will find a bunch of posts about it and how people got it fixed. People have paid like $1500 or more to get this fixed if there's no stud left to grab onto. There's basically no room to get a right angle drill in there to drill it out due to the angle its at.

 

[Grabbit]

People have paid like $1500 or more to get this fixed if there's no stud left to grab onto.

That's way too much to spend on an issue like this. A rebuilt CBFA head through VW is less than that. I paid just over $1200 for mine and they accepted my fubarred core.

I tried to have mine fixed but every machine shop I took the head to chuckled when they saw the passenger side upper bolt broken off and said I'd be better off getting a new head . Some even refused to work on it.