poor1

PS: The main sticking point is getting the belt back on. Personally I do not count the teeth and rely purely on lining up the marks on the cam sprocket and flywheel. Should the flywheel marks be missing take out No 1 spark plug, put a finger on the hole until you find the compression stroke and then carefully establish TDC with a piece of rod into the hole.

A useful thing to do to keep the belt in close proximity with the crankshaft sprocket is to cut half a dozen short lengths
(1.5 in long) of 15mm plastic water pipe and jam them between the outside of the belt and the housing. This keeps the belt tightly in place against the crankshaft sprocket and helps to stop the crankshaft revolving.

In order to get the belt back on the easiest way is to feed it into position with the tensioner disconnected, then fit the belt over the tensioner, manoeuvre the tensioner into position and the bolt with easily screw in by hand.

Be prepared for a fight all the way. Some Audi mechanics tell you they can do it two hours (book time 4hours) but I would take that with a pinch of salt. Be prepared to spend a whole day at least.

fabric8

Blue TT Top, I'm about half way through this install and this thread has been great so far! I'm also referencing ECS's guide while I'm doing it, but your's is really great to follow because it has much more detail. Although one thing I DID follow on theirs was the tip/trick they mention on page 6. It made removing the old belt a breeze, and will likeley make putting the new one on just as easy. In any case, I'll take pics and offer them to you if you want to use them to update your thread.

Speaking of pics, do you have a PDF for this guide with all the missing pics intact? Or are you able to correct the links for the missing pics?

Thanks again! I'm going to be working on getting the water pump off next. All 3 bolts are already off and it's starting to wiggle out, but it's still on there quite tight.

So far, so good though!

fabric8

I finished the job yesterday. I took 3 half days to complete the job, but that also included changing the thermostat. The toughest part I faced was getting the new tbelt back on from the cam sprocket to water pump to crank sprocket side.

Trying the tip from ECS's guide did help a bit - by using that method, you can actually take the grenade pin off the tensioner and get the roller to compress a little further! It helps a bit with that side of the belt but not the other side.

It didn't occur to me until many many attempts, that I could turn the crack sprocket counter clockwise just enough to allow the paint mark on the belt to line up with the paint mark on the crank sprocket, get the belt onto it, then turn the crank sprocket clockwise again and guide the belt onto the rest of the crank sprocket. All TDC marks still lined up, as did the paint marks.

I kept believing that the crank sprocket needed to stay at TDC while trying to get the belt onto it. That's not the case. As long as the paint marks line up between the belt and the tooth on the crank sprocket, once the belt is on it and you get it back to TDC, the belt tightens up as it needs to and everything lines up perfectly. Trying to get the Continental belt onto the crank sprocket while its on TDC is impossible.

As others have stated, this is a phenomenal DIY and is a must have to do this job. I don't have the Bentley either, but I can't imagine it being useful with this guide around. Thanks!!!!

FWIW, my belts and water pump actually looked great for 71k miles. But I hear it's the tensioner which generally fail and cause the belt to snap. In any case, I'm glad I finally did this. I saved a bunch and have the confidence it was done right by me.

toddfiebig

Somebody help me please! I got my belt back on and all the marks lined up. I rotated the engine by hand to see if they would still be aligned after two rotation and they never lined up again after even 4 rotations.

Why would this happen? Did I ruin my motor by rotating it? I have now taken out the spark plugs to confirm top dead center by I'm not sure if it is safe to rotate the cam to get it back lined up. I think I should be able to do this if I don't have any pistons at the top, correct?

How hard should it be to rotate the cam wheel when the belt is off? By hand? With a wrench but easy or should it still be pretty stiff? Mine is not easy to rotate.

There was nothing wrong with the car when I started, it was just at 120K miles.

Thanks for any help you can give to a newbie!

fabric8

thats expected. the timing marks are only used to make sure the belt lines up correctly when you first put it back on. but the moment you rotate the crank, the marks wont line up anymore. I believe th8s was mentioned a few posts back.

poor1

Just to clarify. Whilst the previous post (fabric8) is correct in saying that the marks on the BELT will not line up again when the engine is turned, the ENGINE timing marks will line up after two revolutions if it has been done correctly. If you have gently turned two complete revolutions and not come across any obstruction and the ENGINE marks are lined up again, everything should be fine.
Personally I don't mark the belt and rely upon the engine markings.

joeveto

Hi Everyone. I've printed these instructions, and begun the work. It's been a bit rough, as I have evidence someone preceded me and stripped a lot of bolt heads.

To that end, I'm having a heck of a time getting a grip on the "hidden" engine mount bolt. I've dropped the engine a bit and can at least somewhat see the bolt head without using a mirror.

However, it appears to be partially stripped.

I've also taken a 2x4 and using a hammer, tapped on the bracket to get it to move counterclockwise a bit (with hope it would loosen the remaining fastener). It moved, but hardly enough to make a difference.

If I could drop the engine low enough on the right side, and gain a straight shot at the bolt, my options would increase significantly. I could use a bolt extractor or drill the sucker out. But I don't think I can get the engine that low.

Right?

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to remove this sucker? It's pretty tight in there. I've taken a oxy acetylene torch to the bolt to heat it, and I've sprayed it with PB Blaster to let it sit overnight. I'll heat it again tomorrow.

My fear, at this point, is that I'm going to end up in a situation where my only choice will be to drop the motor to remove the bracket. At that point...well...I'll be doing the clutch too.

But I really, really don't want to have to do that.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

joeveto

In the above, I said "engine mount bolt," but I meant to say "engine mount bracket bolt." Sorry.

joeveto

I just finished the job, and I found it to not be too bad -- save for two bolts that were rounded off by someone prior. Each caused me a half day's labor and most of my sanity. Seriously.


Below are some tips I learned:

Attaching the timing belt -- This can be very easy. I was all set up to try both the ECS method and the original poster's zip tie method. However, I tried another way, and it worked first time around with no extraordinary effort or scraped knuckles.

1. As with every other method, ensure the engine is at TDC (check your marks on the gears, the belt, and the flywheel.)

2. With the belt on the cam gear and the water pump gear and routed properly otherwise, pull it as far over the crank gear as possible.

3. As others have noted, the dot you made on the belt will not even come close to the dot on the crank gear. This is not an issue.

4. Rotate the crank gear counterclockwise until it meets up with the dot you made on the belt.

5. Now use your left hand and gently push the belt (where the dot on the belt matches the dot on the gear -- you don't want it to slip off) onto the crank gear. It should easily, but partially slide onto the gear at this point.

6. As you keep gentle pressure on the belt, slowly rotate the crank clockwise.

7. As the you rotate the crank, keep progressively applying pressure to the belt until the crank makes a half revolution. By this point, the belt will be seated on all the gears.

It's that easy. No shoving, wiggling, straining. It's one steady, continuous move and the belt will go on.

As with all the other methods, you can now complete a couple of rotations feeling for obstructions and ensuring the belt is properly seated.



Other key points:

Removing Fasteners:

Unless you've had the car since new, proceed with caution when removing all fasteners. Inspect the fastener heads carefully for previous damage, use PB Blaster and heat if needed. I would have at minimum, a MAP gas torch at the ready. An oxy acetylene torch is a plus.

Installing Fasteners:

The original poster recommends high temp thread lock. I appreciate his perspective, but after researching this, I disagree. I would stick with blue threadlock.

My reason? From what I've read, the red thread lock is intended more for permanent installations where you really never want to remove the fastener ever again. For our intended purpose, changing the belt every 60K miles, we do need to remove these fasteners again.

To break the high temp thread lock, you have to heat the bolt to a minimum of 500 degrees. This is a lot, and it's in tight quarters. Blue thread lock will still fight against vibration, but can be broken with hand tools.

Further proof? I found timing kits that came with the blue thread lock instead of the high temp.

The Jack Is Your Friend -- Use it to move the engine up and down for access

The OP mentions this but I have to underscore how important this is, especially with the engine mount bracket.

For safety, I kept a second floor jack under the transmission.

Use this time to clean your car!

As I looked through the OP's pictures I was shamed by how surgically clean his car is. While the parts were out, I set up a parts washer and cleaned everything I could. I even used my bench wheel to clean up various metal parts and threads.

Take your time and do it right....

I hope this additional info helps, and thank you, thank you, thank you, to the OP! I could not have done this job without what he provided. Now, if only his clutch would go out...

Irawniq

LOVE the writeup... 100% confident in my ability... but I was fearing the worst on this one. I've done the TB/WP in a 3.5 Pilot, but this sounded much more difficult. My tip to add - the Zipties seemed a bit sketchy to me, so I slid a flathead under the timing belt roller where the tensioner would normally shove it up, and it kept the belt solid! TDC on 4 rotations, but I wanna make sure, so I am going for 8. I just don't trust technology/mechanical contraptions!