Beyondhelpin

I have a 2000 A6 2.8 with 59,000 miles. Wife pulls car into the garage. I was in the garage and every thing sounds fine when she pulled in. 30 minutes later wife goes out to start car and the motor is making that timing belt broke sound when cranking. (Motor spins real fast from lack of compression.) Time to change timing belt I think. Its not broke nor does it look like it jumped a tooth. Checked compression on 4 cylinders. We checked the front two cylinders on both sides. 20-30 pounds on each cylinder. Have to check timing somehow so I order the tool for checking timing at the belt. It is dead on. Im stumped. Acts like it jumped a tooth but it has not. I will definitly listen to advice from the knowledge base of this forum on what it could be. Any gurus?

4Rings::G2 boosted::

Your cylinder pressure was 20-30 psi? That's almost nothing, it should be in the 160-180 psi range. Are you sure your gauge is working correctly and you're measuring it correctly?

It's highly unlikely that you bent valves while trying to start the car, the starter simply doesn't have the required torque, it would just stop once the valves hit. If the belt skipped teeth you would've seen evidence of that on the belt. Does the tensioner look ok, does the belt have proper tension?

Has the timing belt been changed on this car? Possibly recently? It's possible (albeit unlikely) that if the cam gears were not tightened properly the cams could've slipped from the gears and change the valve timing without the belt ever slipping a tooth.

4Driver4

Keep cranking, it will start.

Beyondhelpin

5w3o

Beyondhelpin

The starter is turning the motor real fast so it is working. Gauges are just fine. Purchased the alignment tool for the timing and it show timing is correct. Belt has not been changed. We will while we are in there though.

4Driver4

When you checked belt timing, you removed the cover and lined up the cam timing bar? Was the crank at TDC too? If so, you could remove the spark plug at number one and use a piece of coat hanger to verify that the crank sprocket has no moved on the crank.

4Rings::G2 boosted::

The starter has a solenoid that catches the starter gear onto the flywheel, if that solenoid goes out the starter will run but the engine will not turn over.

Beyondhelpin

You did read the part about having 20 to 30 psi in each cylinder,?

Beyondhelpin

Talked to very knowledgable rep at the dealer today. He indicated he know exactly what was wrong with the car. Told me to pull plug and add a cap full of oil to each cylinder reinstall plugs and start. I did not hink he knew what he was talking about so I asked about my next course of action if this did not work. He told me has seen this many times on this motor on 98 thru 01 cars and to just try it and call him back if it did not work. He also indicated he did not expect to hear from me again. Man was right. Car started up with a slight struggle and in a few seconds was purring like a kitten. Amazed me!!!!!

Thanks to anyone who gave any help.

Beyondhelpin

My last 2 responses are under im stumped instead of being on the bottom of thread they are toward the top.