Scheduled Maintenance

The site may be unavailable due to scheduled maintenance from Friday, May 3rd starting at 8 PM CDT through Monday, May 6th.
During this time, the website may not be available. If you experience issues, please check back later.
Thank you for your patience, and we apologize for any inconvenience.

One-Time-Use Parts And Fasteners: Volkswagen

What is a one-time-use part, and how do you determine if a fastener, clip, or part can be reused? These are questions that we are confronted with in the collision industry quite a lot. The other big question is "Where do I find this information?"

As the Repairability Technical Support (RTS) team researches OEMs for one-time-use fastener/part information, we are putting together a series of articles on how and where to locate this information for specific OEMs. Let’s take a look at Volkswagen.

Volkswagen has a position statement for Fasteners Applicable To All Volkswagen Models. This position statement goes into detail about what parts and fasteners are one-time use.

Some examples from this position statement are:

"Do not re-use any fasteners that are worn or deformed in normal use. Some fasteners are designed to be used only once, and are unreliable and may fail if used a second time. This includes nuts, bolts, washers, circlips and cotter pins."

"Always replace self-locking nuts and bolts, and nuts and bolts that are tightened with an additional tightening angle."

"Always follow the recommendations in the Elsa Web/Erwin repair manuals; replace these fasteners with new parts where indicated, and any other time it is deemed necessary by inspection."

Following OEM procedures, including the identification and use of one-time-use fasteners/parts, is important in order to help ensure a complete, safe, and quality repair.

Additional I-CAR Collision Repair News you may find helpful:


Related I-CAR Courses