Ultimate Timing Belt DIY!

[FitchHollister]

Well, unless you have the VR6. Then you have 24 valves, two in two out. Either you can find replacement valves on ECS.

[complexe_GTI]

Yea thanks man...Yea i heard that you dont have to change ALL the valves if just a couple are messed, just the ones that are need to be changed. So does this mean, that my mechanic doesnt know what he's talkin about?...Should I be worried into payin this guy money if he might not do it right?

I'm pretty sure being a mechanic he must know how to change them, its pretty much a straight forward thing if your a mechanic right?

...Thanks again for your help

[sheimbach]

he might mean u have 16 bent valves, 4 of the intake valves dont normally bend

[Jtgti18t]

i just did my timing belt,water pump, and t-stat a week or two ago. this helped alot

take your time and follow this step by step and everything should work out fine

[complexe_GTI]

Yea thats probably what he meant, if your sayig 4 of them dont usually bend...we dont know for sure how many I bent, becuase we havent took it apart yet...thats just what he told me I could be facing!....

Yea im takin my time with this..cuz I dont want anything else to happen...its bad enough i gotta spend my taxes on this!!!!..

I saw on ECS tuning the valves and they arent that much...so hopefully everything will work out!!

Thanks again dudes!!

[afholderman]

Did this yesterday, took 10 hours when upon hour 8 we started the car and had a massive coolant leak from the thermostat. After tearing that down and putting everything back together, I forgot to reconnect the n249 valve sensor, and thought all hell was going to break loose on my engine, luckily I figured it out and now all is well and running great.

[mankongde]

Just did this job stretched into three days. Great DIY but the job its self is still a major pain.

I'm pretty sure the car's previous owner never did the belt job. The car was running fine (except a whirring sound at about 3200 RPM that I took to be the Turbo) until the tensioner pulley just exploded; had burnt-out ball bearings all over the place >_<.

As much of a pain this job was and as pissed and frustrated as I got at the white-coats in Germany, I'm impressed that none of the valves got screwed up and it didn't skip a tooth after that pulley went.

If I own the car for another 60k miles, I'll prolly find an indi shop to do it next time

[Vr6Jamesgti]

any experience their belts showing signs of cracks with in a week after replacing the belt? I just did it...now i have to do it again.....I just checked it after a week, and i found 1 tiny crack on the belt.

[gypsyjetta]

Ive got to taking the engine mount apart, but before I do this should the car be on four jack stands or can I jack the engine like I have it now with the front jacked up only.
If the answer is no where is a good point to jack and stand at the rear ? Sorry for the rudimentary question.

[gypsyjetta]

little help...

[kamikaze2dope]

You can and thats the way i did mine.
Jack stands up front (sub frame) and my jack to up and down the engine.
Over all the process you need to up and down the engine to gain access...

Just make sure to close the jack release valve correctly and to block the rear wheels.

GL

Quote, originally posted by gypsyjetta »

Ive got to taking the engine mount apart, but before I do this should the car be on four jack stands or can I jack the engine like I have it now with the front jacked up only. If the answer is no where is a good point to jack and stand at the rear ? Sorry for the rudimentary question.

[gypsyjetta]

I started at dinner yesterday and got done at 4:18 this morning. Took my time and followed the instructions. I couldn't belive it when I got everythin g together and it started right up !
Oh, my water pump impeller was detatched and broke in pieces when touched.

[mokiblue]

everything was so easy.... until I pulled the pin and noticed that I had left too much tension on the tensioner side and not enough on the water pump side... and the belt has slipped a tooth to the right on the cam gear, but nowhere else.

now for the life of me I can't figure out how to recompress the tensioner with an m5 bolt and washer!?!?

Greatly appreciate any help.

[2002JettaMike]

The tensioner has to come out and go in a Vice to compress it and get the spring back in it.

Or so I've heard. I've never done that.

Good luck.

[mokiblue]

wow, things are so much easier to see in the light of day.

the m5 bolt and washer fit right into that forked part on the large pully and down into the a threaded hole on the tensioner housing.

it's all good now.

[ruetzal]

just saving this in my watched

[RIVWMKIV]

Did mine a few days ago...some tips:

I removed my engine mount completely and had no problems getting it back in (it is so much easier with that thing outta the way!). All in all it is really pretty straight forward, just make sure to mark the belt to the crankshaft pulley and camshaft pulley (and don't play around with the pulleys at TDC, that is just asking for trouble). And another suggestion, wear mechanic gloves!!! My hands had hundreds of little tiny cuts on the backs of them.

Also, use a torque wrench where applicable, the parts you will be messing with require proper torque as they are very vital parts that you don't want becoming loose or to tight!

edit: and the clamp suggestion further up in this thread was an excellent idea, if it's just you working on it, the clamps are essential to hold the belt where you want it to stay...

Here is the basic install that I used:

I put the belt and the tensioner on, lined up the marks (belt to pulley marks), clamped the belt in place on the camshaft pulley, wedged a screw driver wrapped in a rag in the crankshaft pulley and then installed the idler pulley by sorta getting the belt half on it, and then positioning it on the tensioner and then bolted it on and then after triple checking the belt marks THEN pulled the pin. All this while the engine was jacked up and the overflow tank and motor mount completely removed.

The whole process took me about 6 hours (first time) although I did not replace the thermostat. It is so straight forward though I'm sure I could do it in 4 hours the next time without rushing.

There is no way I would trust anyone but myself with a job like this, I care about my car, some random mechanic does not. I will do it again without hesitation in another 60,000 miles.

Any questions, just ask I will walk you through it!

Modified by RIVWMKIV at 9:54 AM 4-11-2008

[Nihilator]

Did mine on Tuesday night through Wednesday morning. *That* was a long job. It took me a lot longer than expected, and I must say that swapping Climatronic into my car was less of a pain...figuratively and literally.

A question: When you pull the pin from the tensioner, should the tensioner snap forward? I ask because when I pulled the pin (an apt phrasing), there was absolutely no resistance to it coming out. In fact, I was able to slide it back in and out without problem. I was surprised because I thought the tensioner would snap forward and put pressure on the idler pulley.

When just playing around with the tensioner before installing it, I *did* feel resistance when pulling on the pin (testing it to see how much I had to worry about accidentally pulling it out), just so you know the tensioner was good to begin with. I guess.

--Chris

[vdubN228]

[vukmad1]

Just finished a couple hours ago. Had everything in place but couldn't fit the mount back in. (my neighbor decided to "help" while I wasn't there, I didn't want the mount out, because I had read a previous post by someone who experienced this exact problem) I had to take out the tensioner, put the mount back in, and then do it over.

So my question to you is, how did you put the mount back in with the belt in place? Jack the engine way up? I wasn't comfortable doing that but I don't know how else it's possible....

[vukmad1]

Nevermind....I just re-read this entire thread and I see someone already posted the answer. Something about using two jacks to tilt the motor. Thanks anyway.

[rono1]

Quote, originally posted by vukmad1 »

Nevermind....I just re-read this entire thread and I see someone already posted the answer. Something about using two jacks to tilt the motor. Thanks anyway.

yup. undo the tranny side mount and tilt.. piece of cake.

oh btw. my oem belt had not one crack, nothing. it could of gone to 100k+.

IMO. If your snapping timing belts, you way to jerky on launches, downshifting, upshifting, etc.

[vukmad1]

Same here - belt might have lasted even 150k ( I'm at 85k now) but I didn't want to take any chances....not with the potential for messing up all the valves and everything. Anyway, now I got the new water pump as well.

[FaelinGL]

Just finished this last night. After having done two timing chain replacements on VR's, I can say that the 1.8t is not nearly as hard, but it is much more frustrating and time consuming. Getting from step to step simply took longer. Places where we spent a lot of time:

1) Removing the timing belt. We fiddled around with the M5 bolt for about 15 minutes before we just decided to remove the idler pulley. Then the belt came right out.

2) The T-stat housing. I don't know how you guys removed that bottom bolt, but even with the alternator slide to the front, we wrestled with that bolt for a good 2 hours, both in removing and installing.

3) The alternator. Until we put a pair of vice-grips on the rusted bushings and pressed them to the side, we couldn't get it back on. Another hour there.

All in all, I could probably do the next one in half the time, but I'm not exactly looking forward to it!

[ruetzal]

saving this one

[Hirobo]

Great DIY just used it this weekend The only pita i found was the engine mount and lack of space I cant beleave how cheap the stock water pump was mine was broken in half both pieces where sitting in the block my two cents to anyone trying to do this, is to make sure you have a friend help you it makes it alot easier. and make sure you have alot of patience, and know when to walk away when you get frustrated. cause there are alot of times that you will want to say why did i start this or why can't i get this !@#@!# part in there LOL. other than that it is not so bad.

[airspeed]

I just finished it last night on my 225 hp roadster.

A couple of thoughts and a tip or two...

You have to give credit where credit is due - someone in the Audi design department really has a wicked sense of humor! Who ever came up with that engine mount (a.k.a. "The Evil Thing", or "TET") - man, that was wicked!!!!

It does come out - EXACTLY WHEN YOU NO LONGER NEED IT TO COME OUT! What a winner! I sat there a couple of times and actually cracked up at the whole thing - thanks to this thread, I was emotionally prepared, and took it somewhat with ease, but also with awe and amazement!

So here is a tip when putting the IQ Test/Puzzle back together again: Imagine TET never being fully removed (the Bentley manual assumes working around it. Though watch it - when the belt, pin-pull detonator, etc are all gone, it may actually fall out, and if you are below the car, land on your nose with unfortunate consequences...) So The Evil Thing needs to be back in its quarters, though loose, BEFORE you put in the new pull-pin, belt, etc. Sequence is extremely important in this. One way to do this practically, without a second pair of hands, is BY STICKING AN ALLEN WRENCH INTO THE LOWEST SCREW HOLE OF THE TET, ALL THE WAY THROUGH TO THE ASSIGNED SCREW HOLE IN THE BLOCK. This will keep the evil thing in exactly the position it needs to be, and loosely so, allowing you to do the rest of the job.

Other notes: I found no frozen or seized bolts whatsoever - this may have been the first for me on any car I have ever worked on. Kudos to Audi for that. However, putting in the chassis side of the engine mount ended up being more difficult, partially because of the alignment, but also because the new bolts felt like they were stripping the thread as if going in crooked, which they were not. It took a lot of torque (too much in my taste) to get them in, but in the end they were good - torqued down to the right value, and flush.

YOU HAVE TO HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR TO DO THIS JOB - OTHERWISE YOU'LL END UP IN A STRAIGHTJACKED!

[White Jetta]

I just got around to doing mine today, about 10 hours with 2 of them for running out 3 times for allen sockets and lunch

All in all it was fairly straight forward, and yes the engine mount was a hassle. I opted to leave it in there and work around it, but when it came time to put it back into place it wouldn't get by the water pump part that sticks out, so i had to redo a few things and hold the mount in place and installing the new tensioner pulley.

I used the PD Performance kit that eliminates the hydralic tensioner and uses the older 8v & 16v version of just a pulley and bolt.

I have almost 106,00 miles on the original setup, and no i am not crazy. I did 5k mile checks for wear on the belt and prayed that the water pump was ok, it was. The impeller was in excellent condition and looked new to me, but swapped it out for a metal impeller unit. The timing belt itself was in excellent condition with no cracks or odd wear.

I guess the only thing that could have gone wrong was with the tensioner itself, but even that seemed fine. I like playing against the devil.

[1.8tNdahaus]

now i think i can do it

[the_journalist]

Another tip:

While doing the job, it's a perfect excuse to pull the throttle body for a good cleaning. I've done this on the last five timing belt jobs I've done on my cars and for friends. Having it out gives you a little extra room to work as well, especially if you are replacing the thermostat. To clean it, just use your finger to push the butterfly open and use a rag with some carb cleaner to wipe the goo out of there. A new gasket is just over a dollar.

[White Jetta]

Quote, originally posted by 1.8tNdahaus »

now i think i can do it

I used some nail polish to mark through the side of the belt and onto the cam pulley and did the same at the crank gear, twice. When i released the tension, the cam gear did move back one tooth, and when installing the new belt with the transfered marks, i set it straight by using a 13mm wrench and turning the cam gear forward one tooth.

[PhilW]

Whats the best way to release the tension on the belt, my belt is out a tooth on the crank gear and needs to rotate. The pin has been pulled as well.

[airspeed]

I haven't had to do this, but others on this thread have taken the entire assembly out again, put it in a vice to compress the tensioner, and re-inserted the pin.

I also suspect the m5/55 sud method might work, though in order to remove the belt and my old tensioner (which I was not re-using), instead of compressing the tensioner I simply removed the to be discarded small tensioner roller.

One other note to people planning this: I bought a kit from Blauvergnügen (www.blauparts.com), including a special tool rental that was about $40. With these tools I was able to replace the camshaft oil seal while I was in there, because it was leaking. I found the crank seal to be ok, and did not disturb it, but the kit did come with a new seal for that too, so I could have done it as part of the job. The rest of kit included the standard - improved water pump, tensioner assembly, etc. It also came with a new thermostat and housing, but having read that the thermostat is rarely a problem I also left this undisturbed.

[03GTIK04]

so in short...what are the main things im looking to line up ? and if the pulleys are lined up the belt shouldnt matter ?

[whiskeyDog3]

Im still unclear on how exactly to line up the markings for TDC. I believe that I use the wrench to turn the center of the crank pulley and then look for markings on the flywheel and cam? Which markings precisely and how? Sorry for the ignorance Im an amateur.