Help! I'm trying to find TDC on a 1997 audi a4 2.8 but I messed up already. I took the pully off the crank before lining it up. Now I'm afraid to go any farther. What do i do now? The crank was not moved and the timing belt is still on it.

 

Put the crank pulley back on and bring it to tdc. It only fits on one way.

 

Yep - there should be a keyway on the crank pulley and a small key that fits a notch on the crank. Put it together and realign the TDC, then re-disassemble and continue the work.

 

You guys rock I think I freaked to fast. The timing belt and water pump looked good. The guy I bought it from said it was only a few months ols and the water pump shows no sign of leaking but the thermostat was stuck closed so I pulled it out and just put it back together with out the theromostat but afer it ideals for a bit it still heats up to 3/4. My last option is change out the radiator. Maybe it pluged a little and not getting enough flow? Any other ideas?

 

Dude, you can't just leave the t-stat out - the car needs it to regulate its temperature correctly. If you've already put the car back together, then take it back apart again, put a new t-stat in, and reassemble your car. You can't leave stuff out like that - the thermostat is vital to the car being able to regulate temperature (not to mention, without one you're not going to be able to reliably use heat when the time comes).

 

I live in AZ so we don't user our heater out here. Does everyone agree the car must have the thermo to run correctly. The old one was stuck closed. my concer is the car after running for only 5 min in the garage last night went all the way up to 3/4 hot. It just seams to heat up way to fast like no flow. Anyone have a suggestion. I'm going to replay the radiator and if that does not work and if no one else has an idea i guess I'll bendover and take it to the dealer. The fans all work, i'm really confused on why it's not cooling

 

Regardless of heater use, the t-stat is used to keep the coolant in the block when needed to absorb extra heat, and then it opens to send it out to the radiator for cooling. You need a t-stat. If it was not needed, it wouldn't be there. With the t-stat, the coolant would stay in the engine block to regulate that excess temperature, and would open as needed to send it out and cool it in the radiator. Some parts can be eliminated from a car, but that's not one of them.

 

Hahaha, dude, I'm sorry if I'm raggin' on you, but if you feel the T-stat can be left out of a car because you don't use the heater, you should not trust yourself to work on a car. It shows a very poor understanding of how the cooling system of a car works. If you don't understand it, you can't fix it.

You MUST have a T-stat in the cooling system. It regulates flow of the coolant, which regulates the temperature of your engine to make it run efficiently without overheating. A stuck open or missing T-stat can cause a car to overcool and run poorly, especially in a hot climate such as AZ. Plus, it will probably throw a MIL over time.

And a last word of advice: if you're down to the T-Belt, replace the belt, tensioner, rollers, wp, and t-stat regardless of what the last owner did. You're there now, save the headaches later.

 

np dude, i pulled the water pump and the fines were plastic and eaten away. Put back together w/out thermo and runing great. I guess u don't know crap Tweaker. Thanks for nothingthing but everyone else thanks for the imput. Tweaked is tripin on something, stay off the pipe

 

Wow. I rest my case.