Today was a bad day.

[yetibone]

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 . 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.

[boygenius]

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...

[NO_H2O]

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.

[jhelgesen]

Wow, that blows.

Anything I can do to help, let me know.

[yetibone]

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.

[NO_H2O]

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).