Timing Belt and/or Water Pump Replacement Discussion [TOC]

[Debra]

You are a man of wisdom. If he still wants to take it on himself, I have already volunteered to take over video and notes. He would still be responsible for the final instructions.

[4cdndctn]

To bad you are not in NJ

[jaautowerks]

If anyone needs one done, I'm in Allenwood, NJ.... D3 specialist

[madreg98]

just did the job about two weeks ago with my son in law. typical timing belt job - however we chose to remove the front of the car to get at the various pulleys and such rather than have to wrestle everything in and out in the service position. also needed to charge the ac lines so opening it up was not a show stopper. got part from blauparts as well as a rental set of tools. car was at 79,000 miles and making horrendous noises. job actually took a week for two reasons, one of which i am embarrassed to recount. the first was that some of the noise came from the alternator so we ordered a rebuilt. the second was was that i misread the torque requirement for the offset tensioner and we stripped the thread. (block is aluminum!!) PITA. needed to remove the coil in the thread before we rethreaded. replaced water pump and thermostat and some coolant piping which had started to rust. car runs beautifully now. so if you are mechanically adept, have the time and about $500 you can do it yourself.

[PanEuropean]

Archival Note: Merged two different timing belt discussions together, added TOC tag.

[sjglaser]

I plan to do mine at 75K.. Stokes VW quoted $1,450 including water pump. Would I be OK letting it go past 80K? probably, but the odds will not improve.

Question, does anyone know of an instance of the V8 timing belt failing?

[excitablekid]

Quote, originally posted by sjglaser »

Stokes VW quoted $1,450 including water pump. ?

Wow!. That's a full $1000 less than the quote I received locally. It may be worth driving to S. Carolina for that price.

[sjglaser]

I would recommend Stokes VW... They work on a lot of Phaetons, and are very concerned that you are happy with their work. $1,500 seems to be norm.... If you are being quoted $1,000 above that then I would agree that it is worth the trip to CHS.

[Woft19delta]

Ok so I will call chaplins and see what they have to say, i can't imagine it being a lot different but carter wasn't able to give me quote right away and actually admitted to not having done one before. I guess they can't look up the flat rate time?

I feel pretty comfortable doing this myself as the kit and tools come with a manual.

If i could get it done for 1,500 then sure why not, but in seattle that's not likely.

And thank you Debra for the reference. Actually I think I have seen two phaetons, once on I-5 and there is one I see on 305 (bainbridge, where I work) quite often

[Woft19delta]

Timing belt complete, unfortunately my camera was having some issues.

Found my noise, there is a small tensioner bearing hidden beneath the passenger side timing cover that came apart. ejected all the balls and was riding metal on metal.... if that were to go much longer I think I would be looking at a new motor, so I am glad I got this done

But it was way easier that expected so here is what you might want to know.

Tools: VW timing belt tool kit available from BLAUparts
T25 and T30 screw drivers, metric socket set (with T25/T30 sockets), metric wrench set, ratchet with a variety of extensions, 6mm and 8mm allen sockets, i think thats it....

This is actually way easier than on any Audi. First start by NOT removing the bumper cover.

Remove lower engine shield
Remove air intake inlet pieces.
Remove V8 plastic trim piece
Remove cross member directly above crank pulley (4x16mm head bolts... who uses 16mm?... 5/8 works too)
Remove both fans (you might be able to skip this but it gives you a lot more room, you just need to get them out of the way so you dont have to undo all clips, just enough to get them on the ground... and pay slight attention to how they went on and how the harness is routed)
Remove serp belt (19mm wrench, or 3/4)
Remove crank pulley (8x6mm allen)
Remove timing covers (two uppers secured by two T30 screws each, the middle is held on by two clips)
Remove idler pulley bracket (this is near the tensioner, 3x12mm head bolts)
remove serp belt tensioner
Timing belt should be fully exposed
follow the instructions that come with the tool kit from here, its pretty cake if you understand whats going on.

couple notes
The factory glues the water pump gasket to the block (awesome) I elected to not attempt to remove it as there is no room to get in there with a tool, I stacked the new gasket on the old one and used a heavy amount of locktite 515 (gasket eliminator) on all sides and that stuff seals water like nobody's business and it comes off decent when you go to take it apart... no leaks so I like it

Cam tool notes: It can be easier to take the cam tool off for belt routing but it goes on easy again too. Insert on the driver's side cam and rotate until it is approximately lined up with the passenger cam sprocket. Insert your 24mm ratchet through the spacing in the tool and realign into the dowels. Make sure dowels on both ends are fully in.

After that it goes back together as easy as it comes apart.

I couldnt find coolant bleeders so I just filled it to the brim and squeezed all the hoses and ran it it, the next day i just topped it and it was good

Yeah so im in it about 600, but a lot better than 1900 or 2200 as I was quoted by dealerships

[kend414]

I vouch for John as he performed my timing belt job on my Phaeton's 4.2. John is meticulous, well trained(factory certified) and is trustworthy. My car runs flawlessly. It was a little more than an hours drive to get to but well worth it. I just didn't feel too confident with my local dealers and found prices to be double in some cases. I recommend John. He's my mechanic now.

[Paldi]

I've got 118k miles on my 2004 4.2 V8. There is a slow coolant leak that appeared about 500 miles ago. The timing belt, thermostat and water pump were changed at 80k miles. Actually, the water pump was done twice at that service because the first pump they put in was said to be defective because my car overheated during their service test drive. The service bill plainly states this event.

What else could be leaking? Cracked radiator? It's about 2-4 ounces a day on the garage floor over night.

[cata1569]

First, please excuse my English is not too great.
I have a Phaeton 3.0 V6 TDI manufacturing 5.2007 which is 134,000 km
I have two questions, if possible:
a.How many km have changed a belt on this engine?
b. How many km oil change gearbox, this engine?
Thank you!

[Paximus]

Hi,

Welcome to the forum...

If you don't have a User Manual, you can go to the web site www.erwin.volkswagen.de then pay VW €6 for one hour access.

Then enter your car's VIN number, and you can find out the Maintenance Tables for your car and its exact km and age. There is a lot of other Phaeton information too, related to your own car.

I think the main pages are only in English (or maybe Deutsche too) but some of the sub-sections have a lot of other languages.

Cheers,
Chris

[Paldi]

The Service Department says the water pump is leaking, after being replaced (by them) 38k miles and 2.5 years ago at the 80,000 service. Cost to replace it is quoted as $1,071 including labor. It doesn't seem right that it should fail so quickly. About two weeks or so before I noticed the leak I'd run over a rock going 50MPH (my car not the rock) and it took a gouge out of the louvers in the center of my belly pan. I was hoping it damaged one of the water hoses that run across the car just aft of the louvers, near the roll bar and crossmember, resulting in the leak.

[invisiblewave]

Indeed it doesn't. For that price you may as well have them change the belt again as well.

[Paldi]

Update:

Service tech said the damage done by the rock I hit was minimal and did not impact on the driver's side near the water pump... it was more to the passenger side and center. However my insurance company sent an inspector out to see the car at the dealership, even though I had called the day before to cancel the claim because the gouged belly pan only cost $100 or so more than my $500 deductible.

However, the insurance adjuster found $3,900. in damage.... The Service Advisor says its all just some cosmetic dings to a crossmember, a scrape on the sway bar and front apron/spoiler, and the gouged belly pan. Be happy, don't worry. Just a little paint. Some rust on the crossmember. Hmmm.

[cata1569]

Hi,

Welcome to the forum...

If you don't have a User Manual, you can go to the web site www.erwin.volkswagen.de then pay VW €6 for one hour access.

Then enter your car's VIN number, and you can find out the Maintenance Tables for your car and its exact km and age. There is a lot of other Phaeton information too, related to your own car.

I think the main pages are only in English (or maybe Deutsche too) but some of the sub-sections have a lot of other languages.

Cheers,
Chris

Thank you!