small gap in the left crankset

It is the plastic bolt with Torx you are describing.  An 8mm hex will fit in the torx and is enough to loosen/tighten the plastic bolt.  The only purpose of the plastic bolt is to hold the crank arm in place while tightening the pinch bolt.  My plastic bolt actually stripped the threads and fell off the bike so I replaced it with on from Amazon.

Ok, I'll take your word for it that the design hasn't changed. However, and I don't mean to be argumentative, I'll just point out a few things;

It seems strangle to me that Garmin/Tacx would describe something as a Torx and then describe it as Hex, and tell people to use a 8mm hex wrench on a Torx head.

That plastic cap is not sufficient to guarantee the crank will stay in place when the pinch bolt is removed. Believe me, I know a lot about the proper selection of nuts and bolts (see photo).

Previously described steps don't make any sense if they are the same bolt 1."loosen the bolt", 4. "check that the bolt has not retracted since it was first installed" .... If I loosen the bolt (1) then it is retracted (4) because I've just retracted it myself. See steps below;

1 Loosen the plastic bolt (torx)

2 Loosen the crank arm allen bolt (hex)

3 Make sure crank arm is in place

4. Tighten the crank bolt to 2-2.5N*m (see crank-bolt.jpg for visual). This bolt uses an 8mm hex wrench, and the torque may not move the bolt. This is okay, as this step is to check that the bolt has not retracted since it was first installed.

Like I said, I take your word for it that the design hasn't changed, but this topic has been very confusing! I don't know why Garmin/Tacx doesn't moderate this and simply jump in with accurate info.

Forgot to add, I don't know what the kit includes.  My assumption would be a new pinch bolt and crank (plastic) bolt.  Google came up with this: www.hlc.bike/.../891099-01

The crank arm is splined to the spindle.  The plastic bolt is only meant to push the crank arm on to the spindle to remove side to side play and keep the crank arm from sliding off the spindle while tightening the pinch bolt.  Once the pinch bolt is properly tightened, theoretically you could remove the plastic bolt and the clamp force of the pinch bolt to the splines would keep the arm on the spindle.  

I agree they did not word their instructions very well.  I think they are assuming you are simply replacing the bolts and not re-installing a loosened crank arm.  The proper sequence should be:

1. Remove plastic crank bolt with removal tool or 8mm hex (I don't think it's a Torx as my T50 is pretty loose in it)

2. Remove old pinch bolt with 5mm hex

3. Install plastic crank bolt to 2-2.5N*m and ensure no side to side play between left and right crank arms.

4. Install new pinch bolt and tighten to 22N*m with 5mm hex

This is essentially what I did after my crank arm loosened up to the point of stripping the threads off the plastic bolt less than a month after buying my Neo Bike.  2000 virtual miles later and I have not had the issue since.

That makes a lot more sense. Except there's no point in step 1, removing the plastic cap, since the pinch bolt can be removed without first removing the cap. Then the plastic cap can be tightened if the crank isn't properly located (i.e., to remove any side play). I didn't have any side play and tightening the pinch bolt was all it took to address the 'clunk' I had.

The kit includes the plastic nut and pinch bolt from what my Google search found, so I suppose step 1 can be optional if your plastic bolt is still intact.  Mine self-extracted so there's that too. 

timcla

i cant believe you are also on your 4th neo smart bike within a year... i also got my 4th in december last year.

i also always got another knocking/cracking noise problem. 

the 4th bike now has it again but this time its only very slightly senseable.

its so annoying that they cant fix the problems before sending out their bikes :-(

i will eventually ask again for replacement (to get a 5th!! bike)... never had such issues on any bike before.

So, just a bit less than a year later, I had the same problem - left crank arm just fell off the bike in mid-workout.  I called the Garmin support number and the new part kit referenced in this thread (S00-01520-04 I believe), does in fact exist as a fix for this issue. However, it's out of stock until end of February.  Shout out to the Garmin customer support team - my replacement unit has already shipped and should be at the house tomorrow. A bit of a hassle to do the RMA process, but much better than no bike for at least 6 weeks.  Hopefully the new unit has the upgraded parts already, but we'll see!

Did the pinch bolt break? Is Garmin offering these to everyone who has a Tacx NEO Bike with the old pinch bolt or do I have to wait until I have the failure to get one?