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Veteran Member
Just had a few comments & questions on changing a 2004 BEW PD timing belt. Thanks to those that prepared the PDF file on doing same it was a great help. I have done a few other timing belts, the one thing that made this one so difficult for myself was the portion of the motor mount bracket that bolts to the side of the engine right in the middle of the timing belt. One other thing that I would welcome people’s input on is the initial setup for the TB tensioner pulley.
The top portion of the motor mount bracket comes off without any problems. Unbolting the bottom portion that bolts to the side of the engine wasn’t a problem either, it is what to do with it once it is unbolted. It seemed like everything that I wanted to do it was right in the way. I had chose to support the engine from the bottom side so I had the ability to raise or lower the engine on the TB side without any problem. I had read that this mount could be removed if you raised or lowered the engine. At 1st I tried to raise it, but I just couldn’t see how it would ever squeeze past the air conditioning line where it would have to come out. This AC line is a metal one so there is no bending it or moving it to the side. Next I tried lowering the engine & this did work as I was able to get this mount out of my way. Once this mount is unbolted, there is only about ¼” clearance between the feet where it bolts to the engine & the motor area where the timing belt goes so I wasn’t even sure if I would have enough room to squeeze the timing belt in back of it as the one leg sits in the middle of the belt. With this mount out of the way, I found it much easier to install the timing belt & adjust the tensioner. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed to find that I could not get this motor mount bracket back up into place with the timing belt on so I ended up taking it off to get the motor mount back up into position. FWIW, even though it is quite a pain trying to work around this plan on doing so because I just could not find a way to get it back into position after I installed the new belt.
I purchased the Deiselgeek deluxe kit for this job & was very pleased with everything. One thing that I would be very curious to see a good explanation on however is how to properly set up a brand new TB tensioner right out of the box. I have seen many posts from people in here on difficulties getting the tensioner set right, I certainly shared some of that frustration. The “how to” .pdf file describes pinning the old tensioner, then loosening it to remove the belt. A lot of people are installing new tensioners & it can be tricky getting a new one out of the box set up right so it tensions properly once installed. The center mounting hole is able to rotate off of center closer to or farther away from the timing belt. If you look at the metal tab that locks into the holding indent & prevents the spring mechanism from turning & get the orientation of how you want the hole to be away from the belt in order to be able to get the belt on it helps. Unfortunately, sometimes that doesn’t work out for setting up the spring tensioner for proper adjustment. Once the belt was on, I was able to stumble on to setting that produced the correct tension by adjusting in the clockwise position but it was more by trial & error (at times adjusting the center clockwise was tensioning the belt). Any comments would be appreciated.
The top portion of the motor mount bracket comes off without any problems. Unbolting the bottom portion that bolts to the side of the engine wasn’t a problem either, it is what to do with it once it is unbolted. It seemed like everything that I wanted to do it was right in the way. I had chose to support the engine from the bottom side so I had the ability to raise or lower the engine on the TB side without any problem. I had read that this mount could be removed if you raised or lowered the engine. At 1st I tried to raise it, but I just couldn’t see how it would ever squeeze past the air conditioning line where it would have to come out. This AC line is a metal one so there is no bending it or moving it to the side. Next I tried lowering the engine & this did work as I was able to get this mount out of my way. Once this mount is unbolted, there is only about ¼” clearance between the feet where it bolts to the engine & the motor area where the timing belt goes so I wasn’t even sure if I would have enough room to squeeze the timing belt in back of it as the one leg sits in the middle of the belt. With this mount out of the way, I found it much easier to install the timing belt & adjust the tensioner. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed to find that I could not get this motor mount bracket back up into place with the timing belt on so I ended up taking it off to get the motor mount back up into position. FWIW, even though it is quite a pain trying to work around this plan on doing so because I just could not find a way to get it back into position after I installed the new belt.
I purchased the Deiselgeek deluxe kit for this job & was very pleased with everything. One thing that I would be very curious to see a good explanation on however is how to properly set up a brand new TB tensioner right out of the box. I have seen many posts from people in here on difficulties getting the tensioner set right, I certainly shared some of that frustration. The “how to” .pdf file describes pinning the old tensioner, then loosening it to remove the belt. A lot of people are installing new tensioners & it can be tricky getting a new one out of the box set up right so it tensions properly once installed. The center mounting hole is able to rotate off of center closer to or farther away from the timing belt. If you look at the metal tab that locks into the holding indent & prevents the spring mechanism from turning & get the orientation of how you want the hole to be away from the belt in order to be able to get the belt on it helps. Unfortunately, sometimes that doesn’t work out for setting up the spring tensioner for proper adjustment. Once the belt was on, I was able to stumble on to setting that produced the correct tension by adjusting in the clockwise position but it was more by trial & error (at times adjusting the center clockwise was tensioning the belt). Any comments would be appreciated.