Bergelvis

I've now had the same problem with both v6 timing belt kits I've installed from Blauparts. The timing belt tensioner pulleys wheels have gone bad. The sheave wheels end up moving on the bearings. I'm lucky I haven't lost a motor because of this! I'll now spend the extra $ and get my parts from the dealer. Blauparts replaced the first one, which I stupidly used. I'm now looking at partially re-doing this timing belt job, and then calling my customer to re-do the first one I re-did before the tensioner goes bad on it.

Bergelvis

I just wanted to clarify. I'm not trying to badmouth Blauparts. I've been very happy with a lot of their products. I've installed over a dozen of their bearings, and they are all still working flawlessly. The same with their control arms and valve cover gasket kits. But, I don't know if I'd buy their timing belt kits again.

cmb6s (NoVA)

Interesting because I just had my Blauparts idler pulley go bad. The idler pulley actually disintegrated on me and shot ball bearings all over the front of the engine. I was very lucky and managed to stop the car in time to prevent any serious damage, though my engine did get very hot due to there not being sufficient tension on the belt to run the water pump (compression still reads good - don't think the belt skipped a tooth). However, I'm in the process of installing another Blauparts timing belt kit as we speak (last one lasted 65k miles before failing), and now you've got me worried.

Would be interesting to see if anybody else has had similar failures or these are just chance occurrences...

ca3hunns

I installed a blau complete timing belt kit last fall. A few weeks after install, I started getting a squeal from somewhere under the timing belt cover. The squeal goes away as soon as the engine temp gets up. I haven't had time to get back to it, so I know I'm pushing my luck. Now that it's finally warming up, I'm hearing my secondary fan (electric) run quite often, almost all the time, but the temp gauge isn't reading any hotter than normal, but the engine bay feels hotter than I remember from before. I'm wondering if the new water pump isn't pumping right, or circulating enough. Could this be a defective water pump? One thing that struck me as curious in their literature was the strong insistence on complete coolant flush and their long explanation about how not doing it can lead to premature water pump failure. Made me think they've had enough complaints to motivated to come up with a pre-emptive explanation. For full disclosure, I was not able to flush my coolant because the drain bolt was stuck and I sheared my hex-key socket tool trying to remove it, so decided to let it be.

Also, I installed the OCAP control arm kit and two of the rubber boots, one on each side, over the ball joints on the upper control arms are all cracked as if they're about 10 years old and have been sitting out in the sun. I'm working on a complaint to them tonight for this item as well. That set of control arms had a bit of a creaking noise/feel ever since first installing them.

cmb6s (NoVA)

Update on my status:

Turns out that the idler pulley did indeed fall apart, but in addition, my water pump was completely seized and the impeller was slightly askew. Don't believe they were both bad parts, but I'm sure one probably went bad and the stress and strain on the remaining parts caused the other one to go bad. Unfortunately, I have no way of determining what the original faulty part was. Timing belt was also beginning to shred but considering that one pulley had fallen apart and the water pump pulley had seized, the belt actually held up remarkably well. All seems to be running well with the new parts installed.

However, one piece of advice if you are purchasing the Blauparts Timing Belt Kit. Go buy yourself an Audi water pump gasket, because the gasket Blauparts gives you is a POS. It wouldn't hold it's shape and just flopped around while trying to install it (I don't remember having this problem on my previous Blau kit 4 years ago). During the struggle to get it installed, it touched the water in the coolant cavity and just started to disintegrate. Got everything back together and put coolant in the system and it immediately start pouring out of the water pump. :< Grrrr... Went out and bought an audi gasket and had no problems whatsoever. Sigh. Just meant I had to do the entire procedure twice.

Bergelvis

the bad blauparts tensioner pulley was made in Japan and the bearing had a number on it. The new one I got from the dealer, which came in an Audi box, also said made in Japan and the bearing had the same number on it! If anyone knows where to get a genuine German part, please let us know! Maybe I should try to find Chinese pulleys...LOL!!!

I guess I could try and weld the bearing to the sheave wheel. I'd have to carefully take the seals off the bearings, do the welding, re-grease the bearings and replace the seals... what a PITA!

My passionate love for Audi vehicles has certainly soured over this occurrence. How much of these cars are actually German. At least I haven't had to do a 4.2L V8 timing chain system repair yet...what a drag... pull the motor for timing work!

Kudos for blauparts though, they have followed up with me by mailing me a return form. I sent them the first bad one. When I get the time I'll send them this one with the cover with a hole in it and the destroyed tensioner cam arm. My wholesale price from the dealer for the tensioner pulley, new cover, and cam arm was over $300. Maybe blau will figure something out for us. How about an American manufactured pulley? Custom made for blau. They really should recall these defective parts... but they would need something better to replace them with, I suppose

Prospeeder

I do lots and lots of timing belts, and have been using SKF bearings with no issues. And GRAF water pumps.

1999Audi

I've bought 2 bearings from blau (brand ***): one lasted 10k second 20k.
I got refund for 1st bearing from blau.
and just a week ago I replaced 2nd with Genuine which cost $15 more from dealer. Brand SNR from dealer.

I will never buy bearings from blau again. Only Genuine bearing from now on.

TB kit from Blau: water pump failed(water was leaking by the impeller) after only 30k - result? I had to do TB twice with all brand new parts from other popular online retailer!

1999Audi

genuineaudiparts.com

or here

audionlineparts.com

compare price between two before ordering

S IV

Wanted to add my own recent experiences to this thread. I installed a full TB kit from Blauparts in March 2012 on my 2004 A4 Cabrio V6. No issues over the next 14 months and about 3k miles. One afternoon, squealing noise appears, closely followed by CEL flashing. Pull over and find water pump pulley rubbing against the back side of Power Steering pulley. Flat-bedded home and upon opened everything up to find what you see in the photo.

There's barely a half-inch of timing belt remaining and water pump pulley has sheared off the shaft. The tensioner damper is also at full extension and will not push back into cylinder. All other bearings seemed ok and the water pump still turned freely. Left bank cam timing was off by one or two teeth as well. Much longer and the belt would have let go.

After talking to Blauparts they replaced the entire kit and I got everything put back together. There's no obvious engine damage or power loss so I think I dodged a bullet. Unclear what caused the initial failure - pulley or damper.

Hopefully no more TB jobs in my future. Oh and the hood latch broke after I closed it for the first test drive after repair. What fun.