1.9 tdi bxe timing belt help

ok so i started replacing the timing belt and everything went fine, easy, up to the engine mount. the engine mount came off easy, but the engine mount bracket is doing my head in. ive undone 2 of the bolts but there is one more that is a right PITA to get at. ive managed to get it undone abit but it took forever. There is no peep hole through the arch to see it aswel. im wondering, how high can i raise the engine so i can get at it without doing damage to the flex pipe etc. as soon as this bracket is off, the rest looks pretty straight forward. im tempted to even drill a large enough hole through the car so i can get at this bolt.

I have the cam and crank locked down at TDC btw. I didnt think id make it this far, but really wanna finish it without taking it to a garage.

Im doing this on an audi a3 1.9 tdi BXE engine.

The engine can be raised (and lowered) pretty far to get at those three bolts for the engine mount bracket. Which one (front, rear upper, rear lower) is giving you difficulty?

its the bolt which is middle. access to the lower and upper was there, but not for the middle one. not sure if i should lower or raise engine tbh.
http://www.myturbodiesel.com/wiki/motor-mount-broken-replacement-mk5-tdi-engine/picture on left.

If you're at the step I'm guessing you are... I often forget that with the motor mount chassis bolts free the engine is free to go up and down but ALSO back and forth.

Sometimes pulling the engine forward a bit on that one side suddenly makes bolts easier to get to, and on the ALH at least it makes removing the mount itself much more do-able.

Just a thought, if you haven't tried a bit of back or forth, as opposed to up and down.

Will try that in the morning thankyou

No worries.

The flex pipe has a fair amount of motion available to it... in all directions... so as long as you don't pull on things hard with a chain hoist you can safely move the engine around a fair amount.

Ok success! Got that bolt out and mount came out from top easy. Just had to raise engine. Tensioner and belt are off. Noticed around the lower part of crank and there is alot of dry white powder residue. ? Can't see any sign of a leak around water pump though.

... Then just replace the water pump to be sure - it's part of the timing belt replacement anyway. There's nothing else there which could cause that kind of residue.

OK I got the belt on. But problem with tensioning. When I turn Allen key in tensioner clock wise the pointer arrow does not move. Checked that the tensioner is seated correctly. Hmmm

raikky said:

OK I got the belt on. But problem with tensioning. When I turn Allen key in tensioner clock wise the pointer arrow does not move. Checked that the tensioner is seated correctly. Hmmm

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I have seen tensioners that use a pointer arrow hang up on the indicator plate that is bent from shipping. You might need to push on the indicator plate to give the pointer the clearance to rotate.

ok i sorted it everything, almost, is back on. will start it tmoz morning. i turned the engine twice insert crank lock but the cam lock pin wont go in. checked with a mirror and it looks like its about 0.5mm or less away from going in. engine turned quite easy. tried again, turned the engine several times and same result.

that is the first and last timing belt im doing. 2 days its took me. lol.

raikky said:

ok i sorted it everything, almost, is back on. will start it tmoz morning. i turned the engine twice insert crank lock but the cam lock pin wont go in. checked with a mirror and it looks like its about 0.5mm or less away from going in. engine turned quite easy. tried again, turned the engine several times and same result.

that is the first and last timing belt im doing. 2 days its took me. lol.

Click to expand...

Did you have the 3 camshaft sprocket bolts slightly loosened before you tensioned the belt? The camshaft will want to rotate during that process. The camshaft pin should be in place while this is taking place.

yes i had the 3 bolts loosened and pin still in place. tbh when i was looking for TDC before removing the timing belt, i had the crank locked down and the pin wouldnt fit. it seems its in exactly the same position now as it was before

raikky said:

yes i had the 3 bolts loosened and pin still in place. tbh when i was looking for TDC before removing the timing belt, i had the crank locked down and the pin wouldnt fit. it seems its in exactly the same position now as it was before

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It might be hard to get into because it might be a mm off, but you should be able to see with a mirror the alignment hole. If you don't then you are off.

I can see the hole with a mirror I'm a fraction of a mm off. I think the pin might go in if I riggled it in with force.

Ok update. Started car up and it started. Success. Doing a coolant change then going to check timing later with vcds

raikky said:

Ok update. Started car up and it started. Success. Doing a coolant change then going to check timing later with vcds

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Congrats. Sounds like it worked fine. The next time you do it, it might only take 5-6 hours.

What i have found when cam pin wont go in "because a hair off" is that because the cam sprocket wont be centered i lose torsion adjustment range in one direction. It may not matter if you can have the adjustment you are looking for within the "more travel side" of the adjustment. But not if you have no room if it is the oposite direction.


Does this make sense?

Also for the fellow BXEr... torsion timing is inverted in VCDS. -1.0 as shown in 1.0 by the way the power curve behaves (low end torque vs high end).

Please check and let us know

Yes it makes perfect sense. I have a little room for adjusting on one side but car so far feels same as before

What torsion value did you end up setting?
Is your car auto or manual trans?

I haven't checked it yet. Will do tmoz and I'll let you know what it's at