EDIT: This writeup has been refined (lotsa non-56k-friendly pictures, etc.) and moved to the Info Forum: Timing Belt writeup
So, I called the dealership to find out how much they get to change the timing belt, tensioner (old-style), and accessory belts on my '99 1.8T B5. They quoted me $600-700 AND said it would be a two-day job. For me this means being car-less for two days and my office is about 60 miles from the dealership. This inspired me to do it myself. Well, at 86,000 miles I have changed my own timing belt…and it was great!<p>I had planned to do it on Saturday, but weather conditions set me back a day. I really didn't want to do it on a Sunday in case it took longer than I expected (I don't have a Scirocco for back-up like Rusty does!).<p>So, here's the timeline and some of my observations (please excuse my blantant jumps back and forth between first and third person, as well as present and past tense). I've included some pictures so that others can see what it all looks like before attempting it themselves. Of course, all the pertinent "tear up your car at your own risk" disclaimers apply.:<p>Last Saturday: Took my daughter and her friends on our monthly trip to Home Depot's Kids' Club. This month they built treasure boxes (if you have kids you owe it to them and yourself to take them there!). Dropped kids back at home so I could shop unencumbered. Went to Target, bought a digital camera (Sony DSC-P51)…not the be-all end-all of digital cameras, but a really nice general-purpose picture taker and comes with 16-Mb Memory Stick, Ni-MH batteries, and charger…suh-weet! We've been wanting to get one for a while, but I kept putting it off (I'm cheap). But, since I just got my annual sick-leave buy-out check, the timing couldn't be better! Stopped by Advance Automotive and ordered the Haynes manual. Stopped by Lowes for a set of Hex sockets.<p>Monday: Surfed VW parts websites.<p>Tuesday: Ordered 128-Mb Memory Stick from Tiger-Direct…no running out of film for me!<p>Called ECS, ordered the following:
058.198.479 Timing Belt Kit $109.00
058.109.244 Timing Belt Roller $27.00
5PK-1300 Alt/PS Belt (5-rib) $10.79
4PK-0855 A/C Belt (4-rib) $11.69
also...
026.121.005K Water Pump $49.50
06A.145.710N DV (Audi TT type) $31.00
Freight: $26.02
Total: $265.00<p>Tom was a big help, Brian was patient (in spite of my numerous questions), Coleen was prompt in getting me the tracking number…and most of their prices can't be beat.<p>Wednesday: Jacked up hit counters at UPS and Airborne Express tracking sites.<p>Thursday: Bite nails waiting for call from my wife that my toys have arrived…Christmas comes early at the DaddyMatt household this year! Pick up Haynes manual at Advance; can tell right away that this was a great investment. Get home, inspect parts; find that ECS sent wrong A/C belt and no WP belt (partly my fault for not telling them which ones I needed for my model year and options). All other parts look great, timing belt is Dayco, 153 tooth (original was a Gates, though made in Germany), accessory belts are Conti's, downright beautiful looking belts, almost too pretty to hide under the hood!<p>Friday: Play with camera, keep checking <A HREF="http://www.weather.com" TARGET="_blank">http://www.weather.com</A>, hoping their forecast for Saturday (rain) is wrong. Kick self for not cleaning out garage last weekend. Xeroxed pertinent sections of Haynes to mark up with my notes. Go to Advance and Pep Boys in hopes of finding WP belt and correct A/C belt, buy closest match. Today's high temperature is a balmy 79F.<p>Saturday: Rains all day. Clean garage, occasionally gazing out at B5 in driveway. Study Haynes. Run out to Lowe's to buy another set of Hex sockets because I can't find the set I bought last week (I think I left them in the shopping cart…doh!). Go out to little hole-in the-wall Italian restaurant with wife and in-laws for incredible 4-hour dinner. Enjoyed it so much I actually forgot about the Passat for a while! Today's high temp is 70F, would've been a great day to work on the car if it hadn't been raining!<p>Sunday: Rain stops…Put car on ramps and started work. Outside temperature is 54F and climbing. Followed Haynes manual; very good write-up and pictures, they covered almost everything, step-by-step. Fabricated an "auxiliary voltage input" device so I could disconnect battery without losing power to radio, ECU, etc.
<p>In a flash of Mr. Monk-like brilliance, I use a fishing lure box to keep track of nuts and bolts, labeling each compartment with the appropriate Haynes paragraph number:
<p>Removed belly pan. Removed bumper cover (Haynes missed two screws in their writeup)
...only hard part was separating hood release mechanism (small flat-blade screwdriver or two helps).
Removed bumper (discovered what Rusty meant about the headlight carriers being in the way, elbow grease helped here; if you turn the bolts just right, you can get them out…getting them back in is a bit harder).
<p>Discovered another benefit of the LeBra (radiator is 4 years old and nearly bug-free)!
<p>Removed one bolt so I could use it to get correct size threaded stock for homemade "Special Tool 3369".
<p>Took it to Lowe's and Home Depot; thread gauge shows it's 8mm X 1.25 thread. Guess what…they don't have any 8mm X 1.25 bolts longer than 30mm, much less 8mm threaded stock! I bought the nearest thing: 5/16" X 12" threaded stock and am out the door under $2.00. Back home…5/16" stock proves to be less than ideal, but better than nothing…then I discover that the two (long) bumper bolts are 8mm x 1.25 thread and much stronger than the 5/16", yeah baby!
<p>Unbolting power steering cooler lines and intercooler intake hose make the lock carrier easier to pull out (note accumulation of oil in intake hose…I think I remember somebody posting this as a common "Passat thing").
<p>Finally, after checking that no hoses or wires are being stretched excessively, I pull the lock carrier into the service position and gaze upon the front of the 1.8-T in all it's glory!
(FYI, photo doesn't show the 2x4's I used to hold the lock carrier in position but does show the factory snub mount.)
It is now much easier to get at the accessory belts. Before removing the belts, break loose the crankshaft pulley nuts for easier removal. Once the belts are off, it's time to pull the sparkplugs (relieves cylinder compression to make the crankshaft easier to turn). But first, I used my special narrow access vacuum tool to remove any dirt from the sparkplug wells.
<p>Since I was due for new plugs, I had a fresh set of Denso #5061's standing by.
<p>Next, remove the upper timing cover to reveal the cam gear timing marks and turn the crankshaft to verify that both sets of timing marks are lined up. Without turning the crankshaft, remove the crank pulley and lower timing cover. Voila, I give you the timing belt! (and evil original tensioner)
<p>Once the lower timing cover is off, use a dab of white-out to put a timing mark on the crank sprocket; this way you can double-check the crankshaft position if you accidently move it (as I did).
<p>I found that undoing the left bolt of the tensioner gave me some slack in the belt and made it easier to get it over all the pulleys. Also, I found that hand-turning the crankshaft sprocket a tooth or so counterclockwise made it easier to make the belt mesh with the sprocket. Once the old belt and tensioner are replaced, it looks something like this:
<p>Now we pull the pin on the tensioner and hand-turn the crank through two revolutions to make sure everything is timed correctly…it is!<p>Since I need the car tomorrow (Monday), don't have a new water pump belt, and 7 PM is a bit late in the day to tear into the water pump, I decide to just replace the DV and call it quits for today. DV changeout is stupid easy with everything pulled apart; takes about 15 minutes, including digging up a used hose clamp to replace the single-use factory clamp. Now it's time to start putting it all back together. Alt./PS belt goes on like pie, but neither of the two A/C belts I bought fit. One's "too long", one's "too short", neither is "just right"…good thing I marked the original for direction of rotation. The two-piece water pump pulley is a real joy
, to put back together but at least you know it's correctly tensioned once it's done. Everything else is just a matter of putting back together what I took apart. Complements to VW on this; everything went back together as tight as LEGO blocks. Outside temperature has dropped to 42F by the time I finish, so I decide to take the car off the ramp, shut the garage door, kick on the heater and clean up.<p>All-in-all, the job takes me 12 hrs from start to finish, including stopping to run to town, eat dinner on the workbench and take about 50 pictures. Next time it should be about a 4-hr job. So, was it worth doing myself? Let's see:<p>Parts: $265 (though I'm saving the water pump for later)
Tools: $45 (Hex bits, Torx bits and 5/16 threaded stock)
Book: $15 (Haynes manual)
Camera: $325 (including additional 128-Mb Memory Stick)
Total: $650 (about the same as the dealer's price)<p>I got a real feeling of accomplishment out of doing this job myself, and know it will be a breeze next time. For the price, I took care of the timing belt and my stock DV, before either went bad. I've got a water pump for later, some new tools, plus a cool digital camera! Not a bad deal in my book.<p>
[Modified by DaddyMatt, 2:08 AM 12/1/2002]
[Modified by DaddyMatt, 2:14 PM 12/1/2002]
So, I called the dealership to find out how much they get to change the timing belt, tensioner (old-style), and accessory belts on my '99 1.8T B5. They quoted me $600-700 AND said it would be a two-day job. For me this means being car-less for two days and my office is about 60 miles from the dealership. This inspired me to do it myself. Well, at 86,000 miles I have changed my own timing belt…and it was great!<p>I had planned to do it on Saturday, but weather conditions set me back a day. I really didn't want to do it on a Sunday in case it took longer than I expected (I don't have a Scirocco for back-up like Rusty does!).<p>So, here's the timeline and some of my observations (please excuse my blantant jumps back and forth between first and third person, as well as present and past tense). I've included some pictures so that others can see what it all looks like before attempting it themselves. Of course, all the pertinent "tear up your car at your own risk" disclaimers apply.:<p>Last Saturday: Took my daughter and her friends on our monthly trip to Home Depot's Kids' Club. This month they built treasure boxes (if you have kids you owe it to them and yourself to take them there!). Dropped kids back at home so I could shop unencumbered. Went to Target, bought a digital camera (Sony DSC-P51)…not the be-all end-all of digital cameras, but a really nice general-purpose picture taker and comes with 16-Mb Memory Stick, Ni-MH batteries, and charger…suh-weet! We've been wanting to get one for a while, but I kept putting it off (I'm cheap). But, since I just got my annual sick-leave buy-out check, the timing couldn't be better! Stopped by Advance Automotive and ordered the Haynes manual. Stopped by Lowes for a set of Hex sockets.<p>Monday: Surfed VW parts websites.<p>Tuesday: Ordered 128-Mb Memory Stick from Tiger-Direct…no running out of film for me!<p>Called ECS, ordered the following:
058.198.479 Timing Belt Kit $109.00
058.109.244 Timing Belt Roller $27.00
5PK-1300 Alt/PS Belt (5-rib) $10.79
4PK-0855 A/C Belt (4-rib) $11.69
also...
026.121.005K Water Pump $49.50
06A.145.710N DV (Audi TT type) $31.00
Freight: $26.02
Total: $265.00<p>Tom was a big help, Brian was patient (in spite of my numerous questions), Coleen was prompt in getting me the tracking number…and most of their prices can't be beat.<p>Wednesday: Jacked up hit counters at UPS and Airborne Express tracking sites.<p>Thursday: Bite nails waiting for call from my wife that my toys have arrived…Christmas comes early at the DaddyMatt household this year! Pick up Haynes manual at Advance; can tell right away that this was a great investment. Get home, inspect parts; find that ECS sent wrong A/C belt and no WP belt (partly my fault for not telling them which ones I needed for my model year and options). All other parts look great, timing belt is Dayco, 153 tooth (original was a Gates, though made in Germany), accessory belts are Conti's, downright beautiful looking belts, almost too pretty to hide under the hood!<p>Friday: Play with camera, keep checking <A HREF="http://www.weather.com" TARGET="_blank">http://www.weather.com</A>, hoping their forecast for Saturday (rain) is wrong. Kick self for not cleaning out garage last weekend. Xeroxed pertinent sections of Haynes to mark up with my notes. Go to Advance and Pep Boys in hopes of finding WP belt and correct A/C belt, buy closest match. Today's high temperature is a balmy 79F.<p>Saturday: Rains all day. Clean garage, occasionally gazing out at B5 in driveway. Study Haynes. Run out to Lowe's to buy another set of Hex sockets because I can't find the set I bought last week (I think I left them in the shopping cart…doh!). Go out to little hole-in the-wall Italian restaurant with wife and in-laws for incredible 4-hour dinner. Enjoyed it so much I actually forgot about the Passat for a while! Today's high temp is 70F, would've been a great day to work on the car if it hadn't been raining!<p>Sunday: Rain stops…Put car on ramps and started work. Outside temperature is 54F and climbing. Followed Haynes manual; very good write-up and pictures, they covered almost everything, step-by-step. Fabricated an "auxiliary voltage input" device so I could disconnect battery without losing power to radio, ECU, etc.
...only hard part was separating hood release mechanism (small flat-blade screwdriver or two helps).
Removed bumper (discovered what Rusty meant about the headlight carriers being in the way, elbow grease helped here; if you turn the bolts just right, you can get them out…getting them back in is a bit harder).
(FYI, photo doesn't show the 2x4's I used to hold the lock carrier in position but does show the factory snub mount.)
It is now much easier to get at the accessory belts. Before removing the belts, break loose the crankshaft pulley nuts for easier removal. Once the belts are off, it's time to pull the sparkplugs (relieves cylinder compression to make the crankshaft easier to turn). But first, I used my special narrow access vacuum tool to remove any dirt from the sparkplug wells.
Tools: $45 (Hex bits, Torx bits and 5/16 threaded stock)
Book: $15 (Haynes manual)
Camera: $325 (including additional 128-Mb Memory Stick)
Total: $650 (about the same as the dealer's price)<p>I got a real feeling of accomplishment out of doing this job myself, and know it will be a breeze next time. For the price, I took care of the timing belt and my stock DV, before either went bad. I've got a water pump for later, some new tools, plus a cool digital camera! Not a bad deal in my book.<p>
[Modified by DaddyMatt, 2:08 AM 12/1/2002]
[Modified by DaddyMatt, 2:14 PM 12/1/2002]