indoor

Not that bad...I broke that tool too. If you used a ratchet to tighten it it's tough to 'feel' when it stops. Only use an allen key for the compression tool.

If you didn't do anything more mark the chain and ends of camshafts(sprokets) with paint where the little grooves are. It will help when putting things back together.

Even without the tensioner compressed you should be able to take it out. It is really hard to put it back in without the tool. But you will see that it doesnt take much effort to compress the tensioner by hand: just a little spring(the oil pressure is gone by now).

Try and take the intake cam out and wiggle it free of the chain and tensioner. Grab it with some channel locks in the rough area. Since you still have the cam shaft position ring on it it might be a bit of a chalenge to move it pass the timing belt inner cover. I don't remember exactly. But first you have to free the cam off the engine block like the exhaust cam...

SloopJohnB@mac.com

Yes…the trick is to take out the intake cam. The exhaust cam is normally held in there…you take out all the caps except the last one near the chain on the exhaust cam, then loosen the last cap but not take it off. Then the intake cam caps are removed and the intake cam is moved up and out and taken out of the chain (tensioner compressed). You can compress the tensioner by hand to get the intake cam/sprocket out, but will generally need the tool to hold the tensioner compressed to put the intake cam/sprocket back into the chain as well as have enough length in the chain (distance between camshafts gets longer as tensioner is compressed) to get the intake cam back in its bearings….

NEU!

Good news! I successfully removed the tensioner without breaking the tool. Bad news! It's going to need more than pads, more like a total replacement. No wonder the chain jumped timing...



I'm leaning toward getting a good used OEM one and replacing the pads. I'd rather not spend $300+ on a new OEM one and I don't even consider one of the $100 Chinese ones to be an option.

Also, I kind of smooshed the corner of the journal nearest to the front of the car during my hamfisted exhaust cam removal. Will it be okay if I just just gently smooth it out with some fine sandpaper or emery cloth?

indoor

Good job!

I agree it is better to try and find a good used tensioner than a cheap Chinese one You don't want to pull the valve covers any time soon again

The scratch on the bock should be fine. Make sure you put some silicone on the lip of the cam end cap seal. Also, like the instructions say, put a dab of silicone on that corner (as well as the other three corners and by the tensioner), before you put the new valve cover gasket.

NEU!

I had the day off today so I went and pulled a tensioner and chain out of this very dead 2.7T that had been hit.



$10 for them so I will take my chances. The pads don't look too worn but I'm still going to replace them since I got new ones from Blauparts.



The Audi project is going back on hold for a few weeks while I work on prepping my Saab 9000 Turbo for the Carlisle Imports show.

indoor

Just wondering how your project is going... Is the engine back on the road, purring like a kitten ?

Moe1354

hi Everyone, I am a new Audi owner as well, I have a 2000 Audi A8 Quattro, one day after returning from the supper market the car refused to start, It cranked but never started. This happened couple times before as well but after few tries it started again. I heard the rattling noise everyone is talking about but mine was for few seconds and them stopped.
To make a long story short I towed the car to the dealership, the problem is this, no compression in bank one, they took the cover off and noticed part of the tensioner shoe is broken, they are telling me the estimated costs to change the tensioner is $2500 and that is if the valves are not bent?!!! so if they have to change the valves they are estimating over $4000 in terms of repairs and part ... Now since I do not have that kind of money and frankly it does not make sense to invest so much cash into the car although the car is supper clean I have decided to change the tensioner myself.

My question is this: would just changing the broken tensioner shoe without removing the tensioner solve my problem????

indoor

If you are doing it yourself it is worth trying. Though to replace the shoe you have to take the tensioner out and hope the metal braket for the shoe is not scraped up like the original poster's situation.

I would remove the valve covers before anything and take a look... It doesn't take long, but the first time you will take your time being careful...

Moe1354

Thank you for your quick reply!

I already took the cover off, yeeeaaa tell me about it, it was not easy figuring things out, but I finally got it off, I see part of the shoe is broken, would a little piece like that really cause the car not to start?

I was hoping I could leave it there and just change the shoe but I guess I'll know if the metal bracket is scraped or not once I remove it.

-Do I still need to lock my timing bely even though the tbelt is still in place?
-I guess I need to mark the chain (16bits) before taking the tensioner off right?

indoor

You have to set engine ant TDC(top dead center). You don't need to play at all with the timing belt. And yes, mark the chain on both cam shaft where the little grove is(that comes up when the engine is TDC). You need a 24mm 12 point socket and a long ratchet to set TDC. I did it from under the car lifting the car and putting it on jack stands. It's tight but it can be done without removing any front end parts.

There is a certain order to remove the cam caps. I'll look it up and report back. Do you have the cam chain tensioner compression tool?