q2quest

I'm in the middle of my timing belt install in my A6 4.2. I'm asking you guys for advice because I know alot of you have done your own belts on the 2.7. On the A6 forum....not so much. I don't have a cam lock bar. I bought the kit from JHM and watched the DVD. I did everything as described and marked everything really well, but when I got the new belt on the marks are a tad off. With the crank pulley mark lined up with the cover both the cam gears are a little off the mark where they were when I marked them with the old belt still in place. Both cam gears are off their marks by the same amount. I'm hoping because the belt is new and hasn't yet stretched this is what is accounting for the error. Please look at the pictures below. The other thing that's bothering me is the holes in the cam gear ears are not really level horizontally. Unfortunately I do not have that cam bar. Drat! What do you guys think?

shawnoc2003

I had similar concerns when I did mine. The new belt is tighter than the old so the marks weren't perfect on mine either. My gears weren't perfectly horizontal either.

Just be sure to roll it over by hand two full revolutions on the crank before you start it and you should be okay.

billdapart

Shawn is right. if you put your old belt and the new belt on a measuring tool you would see that they are very different. A new belt is quite a bit smaller and this will make the marks not line up correctly.

That being said, this does not guarantee the repair. This is what you get for doing a repair without the proper tools.. You wanna do a 1500.00 repair for 350.00.... Go to school, learn a lot, get a job at an Audi dealer, get Audi factory backing, get the tools, get the low price on parts. Work. It is not at all impossible, just not advised if you have any smarts at all and can make something better of yourself.. of course if you can.. you probably can afford to pay someone who has the tools and gets paid little enough for their time to do this sort of job in the time allocated...

q2quest

I'm not sure what to make of this reply. Are you flaming me? It sounds like you are saying that I should either go to school for several years to get Audi certified or pay someone $1500 to do the repair. Did I read that wrong? For what it is worth I have been wrenching on cars for over 25 years. Most of them American. In my opinion timing belts are inferior to timing chains. I don't understand why we should be put in the position of wondering if and when catostrophic engine failure might occur due to this belt snapping. Anyway, I ended up renting the cam and crank locking tools, pulling the gears off and doing it the "right" way. It's all back together and running great. I spent about $500 and learned alot. And I didn't have to go to school.

donromani

Don't stress about billdapart - cocaine is a hell of a drug....

skinnytirez

You only show a pic of one of the cams...is the other one lining up with your marks perfectly, or is it off the same amount?
looks to be as the others said new tighter belt...
pic of the other cam would help...

skinnytirez

where are you located?

complacentsee

When you do it without poping the sprockets the the marks on the right side will be slighty off and the marks on the left side will but just about twice as far off.

Of coarse we say things like, get the tool and do it right and IMO you should always pop the sprockets.

But from a technical stand point, lining up on the marks would mean that the previous belt had not stretched at all, or would be a bad sign.

JPQuattro

The ole loosen the cam gear trick gets over looked alot. Good that you got it though it is hidden in some searches

shawnoc2003

Why would you loosen the cam sprokets? The marks made are from the stretched/worn belt so they're not accurate once you put the new belt on. If I recall, I had to actually bump the sproket back a bit to get the new belt on.

If you were measuring valve lift at TDC and new the specs then I could see loosening the cam sprokets and re-adjusting them or is it Audi's way of ensuring this by just setting the gears horizontal?????