TimO'Brien

A big thanks to Andy_TN and Ben Hardt for their cook book style write-ups! Review:

I didn't have any plans this past weekend so it was about time that I got to my timing belt (62k miles). I was pretty nervous doing this myself but all in all, it was extremely (and surprisingly) easy. It just took a long time ~ 8hrs total for my father, a friend, and I to do it. (None of us had ever done it before either) I used the Bentley manual as reference as well as extremely well-done audiworld write-ups. The thing I was really nervous about was the actual timing belt exchange -- not messing up the timing but all I needed to do was hand crank the car to TDC and then mark the crank pulley. Neither of them moved so I had no problem. The whole thing went off without a snag except for one slight error but I found was very fixable. I ended up pulling the pin on the tensioner too soon because I realized that I needed to remove another pulley (that the timing belt went around) to get to my water pump/thermostat. So I experimented on recompressing the old tensioner and re-installing the pin in a vice. Well, it worked so we took the new tensioner back out, compressed it, and then proceeded to the water pump/thermostat. So it IS possible to recompress the tensioner. I took a lot of digital pix just for my sake of putting things back together correctly. Everything went as expected. I did need to run out and get a universal joint for my socket wrench but that's the only extra tool I needed. Total: ~$400. Saved ~$700. The list of what I replaced:

- Timing belt, tensioner, roller, tensioner pulley
- Water pump impeller
- Thermostat
- All "exterior" belts -- A/C belt, Serpentine belt, and water pump/power steering belt.
- Spark plugs
- G012 coolant
- K&N recharge
- pollen filter change
- APR Snub Mount

A few scarry Pics:

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/21070/100-0001_img.jpg">

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/21070/100-0002_img.jpg">

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/21070/100-0003_img.jpg">

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/21070/100-0004_img.jpg">

paul_858

nice work man!

Andy_FL

Glad it went off without a hitch. First time I've heard my write-up likened to a cook book recipe ;-)

Andy

paul_858

that's the stuff.

TimO'Brien

I ended up pulling the pin on the "granade" too early just to stir things up. -- it was going too well.. hehe

BSCA4

I though you would tempted on the KO-4. It is there.

TimO'Brien

it'd be nice to go stage III but it's too much $$$ right now.

2tuŽbos1mission

nice work!!

CC Rider

You'd better stick to connect the dots.

LaserRed_OC

Gonna be doing my T-belt sometime this week too. Taking it to a shop cause I suck. Unless someone wants to help in OC? Free beer and $$$.