Timing Belt DIY

1. New Beetle 1.8T Timing Belt DIY (Although you can use this for your MK4/TT as
well...)
After reading all the DIY/FAQ info on the 1.8T timing belt stuff, and putting it off for a while,
I've finally dug in. I've got all the important info for you, except what's already been
covered at the Ultimate TB DIY (UTBDIY) here:
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=2840728
Not only am I tackling the TB, but also the thermostat and housing plus the fuel filter. I got
the super-duper kit from MJM Autohaus and it came in quick time, as described. Check out
the stuff I got:
This thread will continue as I update the pix and finish the work. Right now the car is set
with the new belt, everything reconnected except a few minor things. I will be changing up
the steps slightly from the UTBDIY as there are some things that can be changed (or in the
case of the NB application may be different) and this may interest even those who have
already done their MK4 belt.
It was supposed to rain the day I started, so I put up a canopy made in china. That took like
2 hours to assemble! With duct tape!!! And of course, it didn't rain at all. You can see it lean
like a famous tower below.
1) Jack car, remove wheel on passenger side. Lower car onto at least passenger side
subframe location with a jackstand. You can do both sides as you wish. Use the jack as a
safety or add another jackstand below the marked jacking point on the passenger side
behind the front wheel. Depends on if you have two jacks... you'll need one later for the
motor. Pull the engine covers if any.
2) Remove the wheelwell liner on the passenger side. It's about 5000 torx screws.... Once
that's done, remove the underbelly splash shield for the entire lower portion, plus the side
one behind the pancake pipe. It's only a few torx screws and some clips.
3) See that silly little pancake pipe? Loosen the two hose clamps closest to the pipe at both
ends. Pull the clip on the pipe bracket (or nut... mine wasn't there) and pull the pipe out of
the intercooler hose. Watch out for any oil dripping out! If you find a LOT, your PCV system
is on the fritz or your turbo bearing is beginning to see the grave. Now pull the pipe out of
the charge pipe hose, and set it aside. Stuff rags into the open IC and charge pipe hose. Do
the same with the pancake pipe if you wish. Set the clamps aside.
4) Loosen the clamp for the upper IC to throttle body. Pull the hose away from the throttle
body, carefully making sure the clamp doesn't fall all the way down to the IC like mine did!
Set the clamp aside. This will make room for the serpentine belt tensioner removal plus give
more room for the TBelt job. Also, remove the small line going to the throttle body as well.
Put some rags in the TB and also the hose.
5) DRAIN YOUR RADIATOR into a drain pan. It will make the job less messy for you, since
you will be under the car sometimes! The drain **** is on the driver side at the very
bottom of the radiator. Twist it, and pull it out. Remove the cap on your overflow tank to
assist its draining.
6) Disconnect the hoses going to the fuel system at the fuel rail and also at the fender
location. The ones in back near the overflow tank are simple- just push in the colored clip,
and pull the line off. Don't force them! Your finger should work, or a flathead screwdriver.
There isn't too much pressure, but expect some fuel to drain out and be careful. Tape over
ALL the open ports. The vacuum line from the throttle is in this cluster of hoses. You will
have to disconnect all of them, but I left the one going into the fender (N80) attached and
just pulled them out of the way. There is also another line at the back of the engine, right
above the timing belt cover. Remove that connection too. Any other hose going to the top of
the overflow tank or those clustered hoses should also be disconnected. Take note of ALL
the hoses and where they go!!!! In the end, you will have a much larger space to work.
7) Take out the overflow tank. There is a hose down at the bottom, disconnect it and unclip
the hose from the bracket attached to the serpentine belt bolts. You can tuck the end of the
hose out of the way in the fuel rail or manifold area for now. Disconnect the wiring
connector at the overflow. Pull the small nut off the overflow under the fender area, and
remove the phillips screw that you CAN see. Now the overflow should pull right out, and you
have full access to the engine mount and more room to work and see.
8) Using a 16mm wrench, pull the serpentine tensioner to the front of the car until the holes
line up for the 3 mm allen wrench as the UTBDIY talks about. Works like a charm! The
serpentine belt should now come right off. I will post pix later on the routing of the belt at
the end of the job. Now take the three clustered bolts off the tensioner, noting the
orientation of the bracket that held the overflow hose in place... mine went back in
backwards even though it's on the outside of the tensioner like it's supposed to be- and I'll
have to flip it tomorrow. The tensioner should come right out, as well as the bracket.
9) Go back to the wheelwell, and use the 6mm allen socket with a ratchet, as well as the
19mm socket and another ratchet in the UTBDIY to remove the four allen bolts holding the
crank pulley in place. Set the two ratchets to opposite directions and line them up so you
can get leverage. I put the large ratchet against the frame of the car. I marked my pulley
where the hole is, even though I didn't notice it can only go on one way- the four bolts are
offset slightly. Make SURE you keep the allen socket STRAIGHT when removing those boltsthey can strip easily. One the four bolts are out, the pulley will come right off. Remember,
the 19mm bolt in the middle does NOT come off.
9) How about removing those timing belt covers to see what you are working with? The top
one is clipped in, just push the clips off and it will pull out. I left this step until now because
with all the hoses in plce it's much harder to remove. The bottom ones can be accessed
from the wheelwell with a 10mm socket. There are 5 of them, and the two lower covers will
come right out. Here's a pic that I haven't seen yet:
10) Now you are ready for the big one. It's time to mark your original belt with some paint
or white-out in my case. I did a few teeth apart and also marked the original belt at the top
with "cam" to be sure I got it right. I also spaced the marks differently from top to bottom
to be sure it was right. If you do this step, the whole job just became much easier. You do
not need to check the original marks or put the engine to top dead center (TDC) as long as
the ENGINE WORKS FINE and NO CELs EXIST FOR CAM POSITION! MAKE SURE!!!! do NOT
remove any tensioner parts yet and make sure the belt cogs have corresponding marks
where the belt teeth are marked. Only do two marks for the cam and crank pulleys, so you
don't make it more confusing. The same exact number of teeth need to exist between the
cam and crank on the right side of the belt, the water pump side. The other side is
insignificant as that's the tension side. The motor turns clockwise under power, and the
crank pulls down on the belt. This is why the right side is critical. Do NOT use the left side of
the belt to line anything up.
11)Now comes a special step. It's not too hard, and you will thank me for it later. REMOVE
THE CHARGE PIPE clamps behind the motor. There are two clamps with two 10mm bolts
each. One is up top and easy to see. The other is down halfway behind the motor. Be
careful not to drop the two clamp halves or bolts. Now the charge pipe can be freed up
enough at the bottom for a following step. I actually removed the whole charge pipe and set
it aside at the back of the engine bay. But you don't need to....
Remove the coolant hose to metal pipe connection near where the power charge pipe
bracket is, and pull the hose off. You will get coolant here and there from this part... now
take that pipe that follows the frame rail forward to the turbo aftercool pump attached to
the cooling fan shroud, and unclip the pipe from the plastic holders. Feed the pipe out of the
way by pulling the free end down, catch the coolant if you can!
12) Ready to pull the motor mount? Have a drink now. You will need it. For all those DIY'ers
out there that couldn't get the motor mount out, or back in, Step 11 basically gave you all
the room you need to remove it ENTIRELY. I'm pretty sure jacking the CRAP out of the
motor after removing the frame part of the mount might help too, but I refused to go any
higher and noticed the motor side of the mount was easy to work toward the rear of the
engine bay. I also tried LOWERING the motor too, and this had a negative effect on the
turbo oil return line, something I'm not happy about. It's okay, but got crimped a bit and if I
hadn't noticed, may have detroyed the turbo over time. I just used some pliers to
straighten it out.
Now the 18mm bolts straight down need to be removed. These will need a little help with a
pipe over a 1/2" drive ratchet or large breaker bar. You also need a 8" or more extension to
clear the fender and get a good leverage on it. They are TIGHT. These were the only real
trouble bolts I had. Once you are ready to pull those bolts, toss a jack under the oil pan,
and put some wood between it and the pan. Jack SLOWLY until you have the wood in place,
and be sure the jcak is perfect. If you have any doubts, reset the jack or wood and try
again. You really don't want the motor to fall on you or wreck your lines and pan. Put just
enough pressure to seat the wood on the pan, no more. Now begin unscrewing the bolts,
and jack a little more when you have them broken free. If the bolts remain stubborn, go up
or down very carefully with the jack until you have an easier time. After those two bolts are
removed, you are now only supporting the motor with the jack. Lower it just enough so the
frame side of the mount goes slack (where the bolt heads were attached)
Now remove the small bracket with 13mm bolts that's under the fender and holds on to the
top of the frame side mount. Remove the two bolts that hold the frame side of the mount in
place, and twist it free of the engine bay.
13) Jack the motor up enough to access the two bolts that are recessed into the engine
mount itself, they need a 16mm deep socket. Then loosen the lower one. The bolt won't
come out yet. Lower the engine just enough to pull that lower bolt. Now jack the motor as
far up as you can, without lifting the whole car. The motor will begin poking out from the
open hood. Now take the free motor mount and get the tab that's inside the timing belt out
of the belt, twisting the whole mount rearward towards all that open space we made. Push
the charge pipe out of the way if needed, it should move easily. The mount will come out
under the wheelwell area. Take note of the exact way you turn the mount as you remove it.
If you have problems, just jack or lower the motor until you get the mount free.
I ask: "WHAT F'N MOUNT??????"
More to come....
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2. LightSwitch
Member
Join Date
May 8th, 2008
Location
Seattle
Posts
830
Vehicles
2001.5 A4QTM
Re: DIY: New Beetle Timing Belt, water pump, thermostat... (zeusenergy)
08-26-2008 01:19 PM
#2
sweet, thanks for this man! im looking forward to the rest as i will be doing it this weekend.
and the more references the better!
2001.5 A4 1.8TQM
Unitronic Stage 2/APR Exhaust/3" test pipe/Intake/034 DV
AWE DTS/JHM SS/JHM solid linkage/JHM Delrin Stabilizer Bushings/034 weighted knob
ST Coilovers/Staggered Keskin KT1's/Thor Skid Plate
9.5:1 2.1L stroker/built AEB/5857 PagParts kit... under construction
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3. themachasy
Member
Join Date
Jan 28th, 2006
Posts
4,416
Re: DIY: New Beetle Timing Belt, water pump, thermostat... (LightSwitch)
08-26-2008 01:20 PM
Great DIY!
#3
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4. zeusenergy
Member
Join Date
Feb 25th, 2008
Posts
2,606
Re: DIY: New Beetle Timing Belt, water pump, thermostat... (themachasy)
08-26-2008 01:27 PM
#4
Today I got the fuel filter out... after spraying my eyes with fuel from the rear connection
Fuel in the eyes SUX!
I'll be updating tonight or tomorrow morning with the rest, including t-stat details.
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5. zeusenergy
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Feb 25th, 2008
Posts
2,606
Re: DIY: New Beetle Timing Belt, water pump, thermostat... (zeusenergy)
08-26-2008 07:24 PM
#5
Now for the thermostat. This job can be done with just a 1/4" drive 10mm 8mm and 13mm
sockets, swivel adapter, 10" extension, 1/4" ratchet, and the thermostat plus o-ring. I
installed a new tstat housing as well. The 8mm socket is for the harness clamp at the
bottom of the alternator backside, red arrow in pic. The 13mm is for the alternator hot wire
under the plastic cap marked in orange. You will also have to remove the harness plug at
the top of the alternator and move the harness out of the way. Have the swivel and 10mm
ready, place the ratchet onto it once the extension is under the hoses at the back of the
radiator. Both bolts can be done this way, very easily. It took me about 10 minutes to do
this. Make sure you place the thermostat in the block first, THEN put the o-ring on top of it
to hold it in place. Get the housing in place and carefully begin installing the top bolt first,
use the extension to hand thread it. For the bottom one, you may need a magnetic tool to
get the bolt down there. Try to keep both bolts even in tightening so you don't compress
one side of the o-ring- it may creep out on you and get pinched at the bottom. You can also
feel inside the block before reinstallation to see if your impeller is broken on the waterpump.
Modified by zeusenergy at 4:30 PM 8-26-2008
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6. zeusenergy
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Feb 25th, 2008
Posts
2,606
Re: DIY: New Beetle Timing Belt, water pump, thermostat... (zeusenergy)
08-26-2008 07:39 PM
#6
Here's a pic of the motor mount with the frame side removed.
And here's the engine side out of the car, this is the side of the mount that meets the
motor.
This is the two belts with the marks I made. I used each tooth as a guide making DANG
SURE the marks are exactly the same amount of teeth apart.
This is a pic of the motor without any of the tensioner stuff or water pump attached.
This is the two pumps for comparison. The plastic one was fine and it looked like the parts
had been recently replaced (less than 20k ago...)
And the mount back in the car, new bolts and all......
Total time for the water pump, TB, and tensioner plus tstat: 10 hours. I would do it again,
and prolly will
I did all this while taking pix and breaks often!
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7. natsilver
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Sep 2nd, 2005
Posts
1,043
FV-QR
08-26-2008 08:48 PM
#7
Another awesome writeup from zeusenergy! I am going to be doing this same thing in the
very near future. Its been knocking on my door for little while now..
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8. es6501
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Aug 23rd, 2008
Posts
17
08-27-2008 01:46 AM
#8
great write up! I'm def gonna see if I can do mine this weekend.
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