Am I blue? No, the new car is though...

[Rettax3]

Update on this... The little car blue, or Blau (in Deutsch) has not gotten much time or attention unfortunately. Pulling the broken studs out of the turbocharger housing and dealing with the timing-belt replacement was simply more than I felt like messing with until recently.

Now, the exhaust-pipe is all welded-up and happy, only one of the four studs refused to come out peacefully (LOTS of PB Blaster and torch-heat convinced the other three to come along quietly), but it was an absolute PITA to drill and re-tap that fourth hole -all my fault too... I screwed up, and used a Helicoil tap I didn't realize was for Helicoils, so I basically ended up with a hole one size larger than it is designed for the thread-pitch... And I didn't feel like waiting until the next day when I could get replacement Helicoils... But I got it all worked-out, and the car sounds fine... Until...

Once warmed, the engine starts hiccupping, misfiring, and running like crap. I know how utterly maladaptive the VAG engine computers are, at least on the turbo engines of the era, so I was pretty sure it was some minor vacuum-leak or pCV system defect -I've seen them run far worse from some tiny little thing like that... Sure enough, I found a split crank-case breather hose. Stupid that their ECM coding can't figure out how to adapt to issues like this, but instead start screwing with fuel-trims so wildly that the engine won't run beyond 'limp', and in some cases even ignition-timing will get so badly thrown off that severe engine damage is a serious risk.

Then there is the timing belt... I've done them on the 1.8s before, I'm thinking this is my first time in a TT chassis though -I don't remember. Absolute Pain In The @$$. Removing all the little pieces and parts is expected on one of these, but the engine mount that cannot be removed despite it blocking the belt is another thing... I will TRY to remember to snap pics when I chop the stupid piece of "scheiße" into a functionally-removable component... The rest of the belt and pump were nothing special to work on -just a stupidly-applied rubber-band holding an interference engine together...

New Timing-Belt installed and ready to go. New pump installed too -upgraded to ditch the crap-tastic plastic impeller.

And one more reason to dislike most timing-belts: Take the wheel off and work on the entire face of the engine from top and bottom... Dumb.

I found the belt HAD been changed (Gates brand -what I usually choose too), but the water-pump was original Audi -possibly replaced with OEM, possibly NOT replaced... Either way, plastic junk impeller, had already cracked and was missing pieces. Nowhere in sight and crumbly as 'Blau" cheese... The belt had stretched enough that the hydraulic tensioner wasn't even keeping up anymore. So yeah, the belt and the pump needed to go.

The car is still on the rack for the week, so I may even decide to try the transmission service while it is up there -I have a filter kit ready to go- but if it needs more than that, it looks like a manual swap is going to happen.

More to come...

[Rettax3]

Removing all the little pieces and parts is expected on one of these, but the engine mount that cannot be removed despite it blocking the belt is another thing... I will TRY to remember to snap pics when I chop the stupid piece of "scheiße" into a functionally-removable component...

This is the mount that traps the belt to the engine and must be unbolted for the replacement

!@$#! Piece! >:( Instructions say to 'shift' this mount around to get the belt out of the engine. It is supposed to stay in the way. Ahh, NO.

My Porta-Band saw-blade broke when I started cutting this, the only one I had was old and dull. The cut looks nasty, but is straight.

The kerf, or cutting width of the bade, had to be made up for -so a small sheet-metal shim was made. Before cutting, I drilled a hole through the mount, and tapped a bolt in to make an alignment 'dowel pin' that will also help support the mounting bolt against shear forces.

And there it is. In place, and now readily removeable for future belt service.

[woody90gtz]

I hope you keep it long enough for that to be worth it! haha

[Rettax3]

I hope you keep it long enough for that to be worth it! haha

I weighed the options and considered whether or not the belt will get replaced again, but I wasn't going to work around that stupid block so it was out anyway, and it was such a PITA to remove that the satisfaction of chopping the damn thing in half AND fixing a pi$$-poor design made it worth it all on it's own.

As for replacing the belt itself, if I hadn't done that when I did, the engine would likely be ruined before much longer. So keeping it at ALL required the maintenance to be done. It does look like we are keeping it though. Of. Course.