jschick

I am well aware the 1.8t bends valves. but just curious if anyone was lucky enough to have a 1.8t that the timing belt went on and didn't bend valves. I just picked up a 1.8t Beetle with a bad belt it striped the teeth from the belt at the crank. I bought the car assuming I would rebuild the head, but this will not be as easy as the A4 and wondering if it is worth the time to put a belt on it before i tear the head off. I can spin the cam about 1/8-1/4 turn in ether direction till it stops (hits pistons) which makes me want to put a belt on it, unfortunatly this is not in a A4 so it is a bit more envolved to do so! but either way I will at some point need to put the belt on it!
on the beetle the engine sits cross ways not front to back, so I need to remove the motor mount and some other stuff, to pull the head the mount stays (till the belt goes on)
if I crank the engine it just spins freely the belt does not spin. I am 95% sure it bent valves but just wondering is it possible not to?????? I just dread getting to the turbo since it is behind the engine!

4Driver4

Put a belt on and do a leak down test.

jschick

I think I will but has anyone actually been that lucky?

mtroxel

Yes and no. I bought a 2000 Beetle with the 2.0 and a broken timing belt. Exact same symptom, the teeth on the belt on the crankshaft area finally gave out.

Put a new belt on and turned the key.....just for the heck of it. Ran great, sold it for over bluebook.

Audi0s

The fact you rotated the engine enough to have them contact the pistons would warrant a rebuild alone. The exhausts are sodium filled, and hollow, so theyre very easy to bend. Play it safe, theyll clean it for you at the machine shop, mine ported my head and did a really nice job.

jschick

just as I figured, i pulled the belt off and almost half the teeth are missing, not just a small section as I saw. the hardest part on the Beetle is getting the dang belt on over the crank since you need to remove the motor mounts,then put the mount back on, but that part is now done so the easy part will be pulling the head and rebuilding the top end!

Peter Badore

Your valves are bent. When you buy the new belt you should buy the OEM belt not the ContiTech belt. The Conti belt is very stiff and is hard to install on the tranverse 1.8l turbo engines. Also in the Audi TT forum there is an excellent
DIY that shows the use of a plastic clamp tool to prevent the cambelt from skipping a tooth during installation. If you read the postings on VW Vortex for the 1.8l turbo engine there will be many reports of significant difficulty in installing the cambelt including those who used tire irons to pry the belt into position. My local VW dealer told me that every month or so they would get
a failed Beetle or Jetta 1.8l turbo that broke its belt a few thousand miles after a home mechanic or gas station installed it. You can guess what probably happened. Good luck.

jschick

yep it's a tight fit, but generally I loosen the tensioner and remove the top bolt so it loosens the belt enough to just slip on, then push the tensioner back in place. it's kind of hard to reach the bolt but makes it much easier to get the belt on and line things up!