isleblue65

I completed the timing belt job on my 2.7t today and took it for a shake down run. Everything works fine except the air conditioner blows warm air. On auto mode, the fans blow on high to try to get the cabin temperature down to 68 where I had it set, but it never gets cold. It worked fine before.

In addition to the timing belt, I did the usual water pump, idler and tensioner pulleys, tensioner, ribbed belt, crank seal, cam seals, cam tensioner seals, half moon seals, valve cover gaskets, and fixed a coolant leak under the intake plenum.

I have not gone into diagnosing the problem yet and wanted to see if this might be something that other's have experienced? Is there a plug I may have inadvertently disconnected while doing this job?

I'm thinking back to plugs I disconnected and I'm sure I put everything back. I unplugged all of the plugs under the cover attached to the power steering reservoir per Bentley before swinging the front end out of the way (although I ended up swinging the right side out, not the left side as there was less to disconnect). Does one of these plugs go to the compressor? Maybe I missed one somehow.

Thanks!

4Driver4

This is why I recommend using service position.

Something isn't plugged in correctly. Go check your work. Don't forget to look at the high pressure switch and and the AC compressor.

isleblue65

Thanks, it was the high pressure switch plug. I was able to remove the right air shroud this morning and reach in to connect the plug which was hanging 3" from the switch. Works fine now.

Regarding the service position, I started in service position, and even though there is physically enough room to do the work down through a 6" to 10" gap, I could not see being hunched over for a few days and working with a drop light in front of the engine. The extra 20 minutes to remove plugs, hoses and screws so I could pivot the front end out to the side was well worth it.

I sat on a shop stool for much of the job on the front and cam/ valve cover work which made the job even more comfortable, plus being 15 to 20" closer to the front of the motor with the front of the car out of the way meant a lot less leaning over to work on the top end.

If/ when I do the job again in 70k miles, I'll swing the front end out again. For quick, simple jobs = service position. For jobs that take more than 1 day = pivot the front end out of the way.

Also a note: I'm very impressed with Blau Parts. I ordered the complete timing belt and cam seal/ valve cover gasket kits and rented their complete tool kit. The tools are well worth renting and using everything, including the crankshaft locking pin, viscous fan removal tool, cam tensioner tool, etc. I would have felt a lot less confident doing this job as others have done, without the cam/ crank locking tools and not knowing that my cams and crank were staying put.

One of the biggies for me was the complete instruction sheets for each job provided by Blau. Even though I ordered my Bentley manual from Bimmerzone over a week before, UPS showed up with it last night literally as I was screwing my fender liners back in. I joked with the UPS guy that this was the repair manual he was delivering that I was counting on for the timing belt job I just spent a few days doing.

The online DIYs were very helpful, but Blau's step by step instructions really clarified the process, especially since I did not have the benefit of a repair manual.

For the record, this complete job took me a full 3 days. I think if I did it again, I could cut that down by 1/3 now that I know the process.

4Driver4

Did you order the Bentley Repair manual or the Service Manual? If the latter, did it have TB service instructions?

Glad you got it straightened out. Nice.

devinsixtyseven

What is this service manual you speak of? FSM, or aftermarket?

isleblue65

I ordered the service manual in book form. I was able to open and register the repair manual the PO gave me on disc, but my old XP laptop did something to corrupt the Ebahn reader file within a few hours of starting the job and I couldn't access it from that point forward. Just another reason to avoid repair manuals on disc.

To be honest, I only removed the service manual from the plastic overwrap this morning after reading this thread to find out where the high pressure switch is. I'll take a look tonight regarding a timing belt procedure and report back.

devinsixtyseven, the Bentley repair manual is reportedly the actual factory repair manual that authorized service technicians are provided at dealerships and repair facilities. The service manual is re-written from the repair manual by Bentley technical contributors who disassemble the car, perform procedures, photograph details and add technical tips. Supposedly some higher level technical details are omitted from the service manual however and it is more DIY oriented,.

The service manual is about 2.5" thick, which is about 3x that of a Haynes manual, so hopefully that is a sign of it's completeness.

devinsixtyseven

Got a link for the Service Manual? I have the Bentley, in some ways it's very detailed, others...well, maybe the Service Manual will fill in the blanks...

isleblue65

http://www.bimmerzone.com/Audi_Servi.../BNT-A604.html

This is where I got mine. It's about the best price on the Web... better than Amazon.com and unlike Amazon, Bimmerzone has it in stock. I would have liked them to ship it a little quicker, but that was due to my situation of having to start the job before the manual arrived and thinking that it would make it to my doorstep in under a week.

Saying this, after looking through the Bentley service manual tonight, it gives enough information to complete the timing belt job, but skims over the top end with only a few sentences about how to replace the valve cover gaskets. No mention of cam tensioner or half moon seals, cam timing or removal of cams.

The Blaufergnugen technical write-ups were more complete and with better photographs than this Bentley book so I'm going to make sure I file Blau's instructions in my Audi repair folder! A bit disappointing.

The Bentley service manual appears to be hit or miss depending on the repair being outlined. On some procedures, Bentley goes into thorough detail and seems to cover all aspects and specifications, but for some they appear to lightly touch on a repair, leaving gaping holes of missing information and detail.

Edit: I realize that I should have asked this question before I started the timing belt job, but the Blau Parts kit contained 2 small tubes of Loctite (high and medium strength), yet there was no mention in any of the instructions about where to apply the Loctite or that it was necessary. None of the hardware appeared to have any old thread locking compound on it when removed. I applied no thread locking compound to any of the hardware when re-assembling because I was following Blau's instructions to the letter.

Is Loctite required on any of the fasteners? Crossing my fingers that the answer is "nice to have, but not necessary". If so recommended, is it critical that it comes back apart to apply it? As mentioned, I did not see any Loctite crusties on ANY of the bolts or nuts that came off, and they were all secure.

Just Me

Bentley vs. Service Manual - I'm confused.

isleblue65

Here's another forum thread on this subject:

http://audiforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=146813

My brief experience in comparing the service and repair manuals (Both Bentley Publishing) is similar to the sentiment in the above thread. One thing I would say though is that navigation through the paper service manual is significantly easier, clearer and more direct than in the CD repair manual. The search function on the CD brings up the searched keyword or term for every model represented in the manual, not just the model you are interested in - even when the search is performed from the A6 technical manuals section for instance. This renders it almost worthless. However, when you find what you are searching for, information is much more complete in the repair manual. It's almost like they skip complex details in the service manual because they assume home mechanic novices wouldn't get that deep into a repair anyhow.

Bentley's Wiki addresses the question too:

https://wiki.bentleypublishers.com/p...?pageId=753692

The key word they use that reflects the difference is "Condensed". Some information is much better, but a lot of the bigger, more technical jobs leave a lot to be desired, and WILL require supplemental DIY information from forums or other sources in order to have all of the information.