Timing belt replacement: Observations and, of course, pictures!

[RoninTT]

After the TT-E auto-x I decided that I would change out my timing belt and water pump before my trip to Waterfest in July, where I plan to auto-x again. There's just something about being stuck in NJ with a broken down car that motivates a person! Not to mention the $1000 that most dealerships and reputable shops charge to do the work. So I got a couple of my engineer buddies to help and it was a good thing because at one point, it was nice to have 3 sets of hands to position parts.

I'm not going to go into a lot of technical explaination here. ArTT Vandelay has a very good write-up on the process and it helped me out a lot in a few places. I would also STRONGLY suggest having a Bentley. If for no other reason than to have the torque specs for the bolts (you don't want to have to go back in there if something comes loose!) Here is also a good write-up on the process. More pictures of my install can be found here.

Saturday morning, 10:00AM :
I start pulling things off of the car.


10:30AM :
I get the wheel well liner out and quickly realize that this job is going to SUCK...bad.


The sub-frame that extends to the front of the car is so low that the only part *easily* accessible is the crank pulley. The rest of the belt system is tucked up between the engine block and the subframe.


11:00AM :
We've removed all ancillary stuff from the wheel well and under-hood area.





The mess so far... That's not Gatorade!


12:30PM :

After removing the ribbed belt, ribbed belt tensioner, crank dampener, and the two metal timing belt covers, this is what the whole thing looks like.


2:00PM...and a few pints of "Uncle Tucker's Scottish Ale" later :

Here you have a good view of the water pump. This is after the timing belt, engine mount, tensioner, and tensioner idler pulley have been removed.


2:30PM :

Post water pump. That thing was a bear to remove. I had to pry on it from the bottom while Aaron pryed on it from the top. We eventually got it to break free by twisting it out.


Not a good thing to have the landlord see as he comes by to ask what the hell we're doing!


3:00PM - 5:00PM :

We started bolting things back together at this point. Here is the mess, thus far. You can see me under the car trying to get the new belt lined up.


First was the new water pump. It went in relatively easily. Next was the new belt, tensioner, and motor mount. This is where the mayhem began. In order to get everything right, the motor mount had to go back in, then the tensioner wheel was bolted back in, then I had to get the new belt lined up on the crank sprocket, while Aaron symultaneously got it lined up on the cam sprocket, while I tried with my other hand to get the tensioner back up in there, lined up, and bolted in. I spent an hour trying to get it right and couldn't. I gave up and let the other two guys give it a try. After another 1.5 hours, we finally got it! There isn't really any trick to it either. You just have to get lucky and have everything line up correctly in order for the tensioner bolts to go back in. What a nightmare.

After that, it was a simple matter of putting everything back together. The new ribbed belt went in like cake, as did most of the other components.

Observations:

-The plastic cover over the cam sprocket, on the top of the engine, will come right out without removing anything else. It just takes some finesse.

-The metal covers over the crank sprocket and water pump will come out without removing the motor mount.

-We couldn't get a wrench onto the bolt in the tensioner idler wheel, while the motor mount was in there, so I had to muscle the belt off of the water pump sprocket while it was tensioned. It wasn't as hard as you might think. It just took a little time to work the belt off the sprocket.

-To get the water pump out, I had to twist pretty hard on it to get the rubber o-ring to let go of the engine block.

-It isn't necessary to drain the coolant before removing the water pump. It will drain just fine after the water pump is out!

-VAG sucks for using plastic impellers on their water pumps! Mine had a hairline fracture down the shaft. I'll take some pictures of it tonight if I can find it. The ECS pump has a cast iron impeller that should last considerably longer than the stock plastic POS.

-To jack the engine up during, and after, motor mount removal, I just folded some cardboard up 4 or 5 time and used that to protect the oil pan from the jack. Seemed to work fine.

-My parking lot is on a very gradual slope, which meant that as soon as the engine mount was removed, it started rolling on the jack towards the firewall. To keep it stable, I put another jack under it 90 degrees to the first, which kept it from rolling forwards and backwards.

-The order of installation for puting the belt/tensioner assembly back in is: belt (loose)-> then motor mount (loose)-> idler wheel (bolted and torqued)-> align belt top and bottom-> rotate idler wheel so that it is in position for the tensioner to be inserted -> tensioner (loose) -> align tensioner with idler wheel -> bolt tensioner to engine. That part about aligning the tensioner is what takes FOREVER, unless you're incredibly lucky and/or good.

-We couldn't get my torque wrench to fit on the new idler wheel because the engine mount was in the way. We just tightened it as much as we could and called it "good". At some point, I plan to pull the plastic cam sprocket cover off so that I can get a hex key down in there to check the idler wheel bolt. I think it will be fine though as it only has a torque spec of around 20 ft.lbs.

-I forgot to change the thermostat while I was under there so I hope it lasts another 60k miles!

-If you buy a gallon of G12 coolant and a gallon of distilled water, you will have more than enough to replace what you will loose when changing the water pump.

-It took us a while to realize this, but there is no filler neck on the radiator! You have to replace the lost coolant throught the expansion tank (DeathStar).

I can't help but feel that I'm forgetting something. If I think of it, I will add it later.

If you're thinking of doing this yourself, and you've never done a timing belt before...good luck and God bless! You'll need it.

[Europa]

[JHam_CT]

[JustJeff]

[RafaTT]

[SparTTan]

JimTT helped me do mine, with HACKTHS and Kirby and it took the four of us about 8 hours for the whole deal. The toughest part (for us) was getting the belt looped on the cam sprocket. That took about an hour and a half in itself. When all was back together, my hands looked like they had been caught in a garbage disposal.

I think I will start saving up now to have a shop do it at the 120K mark. No way in hell I am attempting that again.

[TTempted]

[Europa]

Or $17k/month if you prefer.

[TTempted]

[Europa]