sit

I'm changing my timing belt right now following https://www.audiworld.com/tech/eng35.shtml. I made the mark on my cam sprocket, but in step 18 of the guide when I use the allen key to align the pully, it pulled the timing belt and moved the cam sprocket up top one teeth to the left. The marks lined up while the timing belt was off. Is it ok to continue? Thanks.

TwentyValveB5+S4

you left too much slack on one side... gotta keep at it until it's exact. off one tooth is NOT okay.

ImAwesome

kidding kidding.. twentyvalve is right... one tooth is a big deal.. everything must be exact.. try again

sit

Tried to lessen the slack on the correct side, but couldn't do it. Instead, I overcranked the sprocket one tooth to the right then put the belt on the same way. Like before, when I turned the pully, it tightened the belt and moved the cam sprocket one tooth to the left which made the marks lined up. The bottom sprocket didn't move at all. The entire job took me freaking forever, but the final result was rewarding.

Rosati (Ginzo)

How long did it take you? Mine's creepin up on me in 5k... gotta do it myself as well

TwentyValveB5+S4

rewarding final result = running car, without worrying that it will explode? yes, the first time takes a while, just because you're always making sure you don't mess anything up.

now you're a pro, and can help out other AW members in need!

sit

Took two short food breaks during the process. Time also includes a harbor freight, home depot, ralph's run for hex socket bit, new bolts, distilled water. A couple hours were done by myself, but the majority of the time I had a second pair of hands.

If you follow the guide, here's a few tips:

The guide misses a few bolts to remove, but they're pretty easy to spot. It's stuff like the guide telling you to remove one bolt, but there's actually two bolts there on my car. Easy to spot.

When removing the lock carrier, you can disconnect all the wires connected near the power steering fluid. Follow the wires, you'll see the bunch cliped at two different locations. If you take them out of the clip (easy to put back), you can slide the wires out and take off the entire lock carrier instead of swinging it to the side.

The oil pump pully has a huge bolt. 25mm? Largest socket/wrench I have is 22m. Ended up holding the bolt with a adjustible wrench plus another wrench for leverage.

When you install the water pump, do NOT torque the bolts too much. I was hand tightening the things and snapped two of the bolts. Ended up just doing one finger tight.

Matching belt teeth thing I mentioned in my above post.

Try to remember or draw down how the belts are placed on the car. By the time I got to putting in the main serpentine belt, I'd forgotten how it looped. Wasted time figuring out that it loops under the fan wheel.

Putting the radiator hoses back on is a real pain. There's grooved lines at the top and bottom of each hose that match the grooves on the other end. You just have to line up the lines and shove hard. Wiggle up and down to get it to move forward. It was late by the time I got there, so my arms were already tired. It sucked.

When you drain the radiator fluid at multiple steps in the process, it'll splash and pool up at different parts of the car. While I was working under the car, radiator fluid was dripping for the entire process. Watch your eyes. I got some in my eyes, but I washed it out and I'm not blind right now.

Good luck. With the guide, it wasn't difficult to figure out what to do. It's just long hard work.