Zuffenhausen951

What has to come off FIRST:

-Front bumper
-Lock carrier(radiator support assembly)
-Intercooler(if Turbo) plumbing
-Serpentine tensioner
-Serpentine belt
-Passenger side timing cover
-Center timing cover
-Thermostat housing(replace IF plastic - it will fail!..see pic below)

To get clearance from the timing belt, either GENTLY twist it 90 degrees, or better yet - turn crankshaft w/ 24mm 12-point socket and breaker bar counter-clockwise, while a friend GENTLY pulls TB forward, about 1/2 inch, at the passenger-side cam sprocket and tensioner. BE CAREFUL not to allow belt to come off...or, it's GAME OVER(full TB service mandatory!).

Here is what a 2.7T Audi allroad plastic thermostat housing looks like after 160k/mi in HOT Southern CA(nearly COOKED motor!):

4Driver4

It can be done, but why? If you are going to tear in that far, why not take the opportunity to true up the cam timing?

mtroxel

I'll tell you, I heard you could do that so I tried it once on a 96 with the 2.8. By the time I got the stat housing/manifold thing out, I'd scratched up the surface that mates with the stat gasket to the point where I had to head to the junkyard for another one. So.............I just chalked it up to experience and did a full TB service on it.

AudiMick

It's really difficult to remove with tension on the belt.

On a 96 SOHC, zip tie the belt to the cam gears and slightly back off the tensioner. Mark it beforehand so you can move it back to the original spot.

It's possible to do it on the DOHC motors but with a lot more zip ties as the cams tend to rotate more.

I only advocate doing this if you are replacing the thermostat due to it being over-looked when the timing belt was recently changed.

I had a local shop do that to me and wanted to charge me another 3-4 hours to replace it.


If it's even close to belt replacement time do the entire job.

mister pepper

I've done it, but it was on a 30V 2.8, not sure if the procedure is much different.

I was able to:
remove the front bumper
disconnect the hood release cable
take out the screws for the front subframe and move it forward one hole on the top to gain more working room (didn't have to disconnect everything or swing it out of the way)
Take off the serpentine belt
take off the timing belt covers
carefully slide the timing belt halfway or a little more off the passenger side cam pulley
wrap some zip ties through the pulley and tighten them so that if I bumped it the timing belt wouldn't come any further off the pulley (so I wouldn't ever lose timing)
loosen the thermostat cover bolts and remove the cover
replace the thermostat

Getting the thermostat cover out wasn't a straight shot, it came out sideways towards the passenger side if I remember correctly, but it wasn't that difficult. Getting my fingers in there to break the thermostat loose was the hardest part. I cut myself a little on one of the sharp machined edges of the block, so be careful. And pay attention to the orientation of the thermostat when you pull it out so you don't put the new one in wrong. You'll need some Torx bits and various exgtensions for your socket wrench to get at the thermostat cover bolts. It wasn't terribly difficult, just dive in there and go for it.

ou2mame

i just did it the quicker way...

removed the bumper
undid the rad support
pulled it out about half a foot or so to give me some room to work and propped it with some stools.
cooling hoses
drained rad
pulled off various wires that were snagging
put zip ties around the belt and slid it off about 3/4th of the way
unscrewed the housing and played with it gently till i found the way it popped out.

ran into a slight problem with it, just the angle it has to come out. i didn't want to force it since i read that someone else had scratched it, but it does come out, and it is fairly easy. i didn't do the full timing belt because i just had it done 15k miles ago, but that was like 2 years ago.. i barely drive the car besides school since i work from home. all in all it wasn't that bad of a job. i thought it'd be far worse. i threw my friend some money for letting me use his garage and tools and time and whatnot, drank some beers afterwards and left it at that.

anyways, thanks guys for doing it before me lol

anyone done the valve covers and have a decent write up?

http://www.happywrenching.com/guide/audi/

this site has an awesome timing belt writeup, even a fully detailed service position diy... definitely great for a beginner.

ou2mame

here's a pic of where i had to get to. it could have been worse.