John's Messed Up A4q 2.8

Why you should change you timing belt and water pump at 60K miles

Click thumbnails for larger images:


Front-end off

Front-end close up, the timing-belt is still there, but something is not right.

The timing-belt lost some teeth at the crank and then shredded.

And shreds of the timing-belt had wound around the crank.

Took off timing belt and water pump

The shaft on the water pump was bent

which is probably why the impeller self-destructed

The belt was loose due to the water pump failure and rubbed against the water pump pulley, shredding the belt

Then the belt, already damaged due to an oil leak, lost some teeth on the crank

Another shot of no teeth

Got one head off

Pistons look ok

First head

Got other head off

Close up of cylinders 1-3

Both bad heads

Buffed and Polished 1-3 Pistons

Buffed and Polished 4-6 Pistons

Re-built right head

Re-built and re-assembled left head

Both new heads on with a new water pump.

Installed new timing belt and checked rotation

Close-up right head

Close-up left head

Installed valve covers, intake manifold, coil packs, and new serpentine belt.

Installed air box, coolant tank and engine covers

Installed lock carrier, head lights, radiator and AC condensor. Filled it up with oil and coolant, and turned the key. It started!

Put on the bumper and we're done, sort of. See problems below.
Problems:
  1. When tightening the left valve cover, we didn't notice a vacuum line was caught under it and so we cracked the cover. The result is a large oil leak.
    FIXED - replaced with new valve cover.
  2. We think a crankcase breather hose is bad which is causing a problem with the car stalling at stops. Other than that the car runs good.
    FIXED - used 1/2 inch heater hose to replace $103 Audi-duty hose.
  3. About 2 weeks after fixing the car an over-torqued bolt that held the timing belt tensioner broke, resulting in the timing belt coming off and smashed and bent values... AGAIN!
    FIXED - we did it all over again.

John and his girlfriend wash his now running A4.

Gratuitous shot of my 2.7t

Shot of my 200q20v