Today was a bad day.
 

Decided to replace the Timing belt on Sue's B5 Passat today. 74,000 miles, and no issues. I called the dealer early last week, ordered the timing belt, belt tensioner, and pulley, and she picked them up at lunch on Tuesday, since she works close by.

I started at 'bout 9:30, and after fightin' 4 soft Allen head bolts for 2 hours 'cause they stripped, I get down to the Belt and find out that the tensioner they gave us was WAAAAAY wrong. I call the dealer to inquire, only to find that what 'cuz gave Sue was the INTAKE CAM DRIVE CHAIN TENSIONER :mad: . Well, it being Saturday, and 12:00 noon, I had an hour to drive an hour and 15 minute trip to get the right part, and my means of driving was not quite in operational order at the time, so I decided to re-use the old tensioner, as I have done on HUNDREDS of other cars before.


That was a big mistake. What's worse, I couldn't avoid it.


I finished the job, cleaned up my dirty paw prints, and my dirty paws, then proceded on my way home from the shop (where I work). After traveling 250 yards, with a total run time of 20 minutes, the gimpy, Mickey-Mouse, spring-clip ball joint havin' tensioner failed. Engine was turning 3200 revolutions, and yes, I heard the "Death Rattle".

I haven't got the head off yet. All I have left to do is get the right tool for the head bolts, then unbolt the head. Kinda cool, it comes out with the cams still inside, and you can take the exhaust manifold off after you get the head off the block. Just 3 bolts hold the turbine housing onto the manifold, and the turbo can stay in the car.

In lieu of recent events, my 2270 will be staying as a mocked-up short block, and my 1303 will live in the woods, amongst the tall Pines, and Wintergreen for an undetermined period of time, and Hummbug just got promoted to FULL daily driver status once again.

Sorry to hear that man. :( It seems like something always comes up to prevent you from doing what you really want to do. It is another case of life getting in the way of living... :(

Man that sucks. I know the feeling. Next time you need VW parts, F the stealership. get them from Impex www.vwparts.com same parts but they normaly get you the right parts, they sell timing belt kits with all the stuff you need in one kit, same VW parts you get from the stealership. Maybe you can get out of it with a valve job and new belt kit. The TDI just plain locked when the valve broke but there is far less room thin the TDI chamber for things that are out of place.

Wow, that blows.

Anything I can do to help, let me know.

I don't *think* any damage was done to the piston crowns, or rods 'cause the valve stems are the size of toothpicks in her engine. I'll know Tuesday when I get the right bolt driver for the head bolts. If no guides were damaged I'll prolly re-valve the head myself.

Sue's going to take the *wrong* tensioner back to the idiots that sold it to us
and explain how much their mistake is costing her. I even compaired the part numbers. The one on the invoice is what I need, and the one on the box is TOTALLY different. She's gonna ask for a refund, and then get the parts from Impex (thanks Dave).

I'm glad it's not me who's returning the part. I don't like being inconvienenced by someone's incompetence, and I wouldn't want to get arrested for "stating my case" to those that have inconvenienced me.

You might have to get the head bolts from VW if Impex dosn't have them. VW uses lots of stretch bolts (the green ones). I got my bolt drivers (triple-square) from NAPA when I did the TDI.
Be sure to replace the stretch bolts. I have seen some nasty pix of boken stretch bolt aftermath on the TDI forum (mostly from the reused engine mount bolts breaking while driving).

VERDICT:

All eight exhaust valves bent, $448, three intake valves in No. 1 cylinder bent, $78, hell knows what the guides look like :mad: piston crowns are OK.

I determined that replacing the valves myself is outside of the limits of the tools at my disposal, and I would rather do it once, do it right, and NEVER have to do it again (to this car, anyways), so the head went to the machine shop this afternoon.

sorry man that sucks, but hey, u learned a good lesson even though what u went through was total crap. hopefully everything turns out ok.

...Yeah, I learned a lesson,

Don't trust the man at the parts counter :mad:


I'll be celebrating Memorial Day putting it back together instead of seeing Rush play in Charlotte. :bawling:

let me know how the show is. they are hitting ATL 8/1. really looking forward to it again.

...I would if I could, but I can't, so... I won't.

UPDATE: Got the Passat back together and running. worked late last night to do everything but the final torque steps on the head. One of the exhaust manifold to turbo bolts kept galling up threads, so I had to take the manifold back off, and chase threads into the turbo exhaust inlet. Installing the timing belt with the *NEW AND IMPROVED* tensioner was tough. The belt was just long enough to fit. Had to get the last two head bolts, and some Mobil 1 this morning to finish the job.

The engine sounded like a pea thrasher until the tappets pumped up. I let it idle fast for 5 minutes or so with plain water in the cooling system to flush any gasket funk away, and to observer the belt, tensioner, and pulleys for problems. after getting up to temp, the valve noise went away :D .

D&F'ed the cooling system, changed the oil and filter, put the covers, and accessory belts back on, and drove home :)

This was the most expensive timing belt job I have done to date. :rolleyes:

Glad to hear you got it back together. I know what you mean by the belt having a tight fit, the TDI is a tight fit too

Funny thing, Hummbug got driven every single day for the past two weeks, and now it runs BETTER. Has a nice, even, but cammed-up idle instead of the "bup-bup-bup" condition.

Must be that Carburetor Monkey we keep in the tool kit. :laugh: