Ouch!


As for the DIY on the timing belt, all depends on your mechanical ability.

My dieselgeek timing belt kit arrived today, I'll hoping to get it in tomorrow after work. Theres some pretty good writeups on audiworld.com, I'll be doing it by their posts, and the little common sense I have. I can do pics and post it up if you guys want, but its a miniDV vid camera I have that can take stills, but they are <1 megapixal, and theres no flash, so the lighting is always a little off, and the pics are sometimes a little grainy.

I can say this, the new parts look quality, and it comes with these little extractor screws to get the water pump off (replacement comes with kit, w/ metal impeller instead of plastic). Screw thing is a cool idea, I guess the pump often times sticks and is hard to remove.

 

ouch... This has me a bit concerned, I have a 2001 roadster, only 23m...but should time, not just mileage also be a concern w/ regard to the timing belt?

 

To be honest with you Bongo I dont know. Everything that I have read has it happening around 60,000. I have yet to see one under that.

 

Everything I've ever heard has been with the milage issue. Now, if your car was 30 years old, I might consider changing the timing belt, even if it only had 1000 miles on it, but its not like its something that is exposed to the elements. And its not just the belt that goes, sometimes the belt may be alright, but a pulley, or the tensioner is what gives out, and any one of those things is all you need to do serious damage. I wouldn't worry about it until you're up around that 60K mile mark.

 

HOLY COW!!!

Changing this timing belt is harder than the time I changed heads on my old Ford Tempo!



Simple tools, you use a 5/8" and a 10mm for most of the job, but you have to remove a motor mount, and jack the engine up, and let it down to get to different bolts. Once the new belt is on, its a pain in the *** to get the tensioner back on, w/o screwing up the timing. I started this about 3:30 this afternoon, stopped for an hr for dinner, and finally gave up for the night at 11:30. Thats 7hrs so far, and I still probably have 2 more to go.

 

3 more actually.


Total time 10 hrs, takes at least 2 people, and if you disconnect the power steering like I did to get it out of the way, don't forget to pick up a bottle of fluid from teh dealer. Thats the ONLY thing stopping me from driving my car to work this morning, as all my fluid drained out during the night between my first and second day.

 

WOW!!!! I had no idea that it was that difficult to do!!!! I guess in this case it is worth the $$$ to have the dealership do it.

 

Believe it or not, if you think you have the resources to do it, and you have a friend who's done a timing belt on anything euro or asian who can help you, you can probably do it. Just don't expect to make much better time... at least your first time around. I think that was the turning point, having someone there who's done a timing belt. *the last 3 hrs*. Before that, it was my father, who probably hasn't touched the underside of a hood in 20 years. That may have actually slowed me down ; )

I have ALOT more confidence in myself now, I imagine I could get the work done in the origional 7 hr time period I had planned for, if I do it again with my friend Josh. You'll turn the engine over by hand a few times when you're done, and as long as nothing forcefully stops, you can't hurt it.

Next on my list is a haldex fluid change. Supposedly every 20K. Thats yearly for me, and at ~$120 a change at the dealer, you can be sure they wont see my car...

Maybe next time i'll actually have a camera available to document some of this stuff.

 

Well hey congrats on the do-it-yourself. You just saved yourself 5 grand. Im with you on the Haldex, as soon as I get my car back Im going to do that too. I will try to get my hands on a digital camera and take pics of it for everyone.

 

Hows the car coming, btw?