Pete K (vegasguy)

Well at 52,000 miles the Thermostat has decided to give up on the S6. Dealer (was in for past warrenty items) says $900 and to not do the belt and pump. Service schedule says it's not due until 105k.

So do I go ahead and do it myself? (have access to good tools (not Audi) and wholesale parts.

I found a tech article on the 2.8 belt replacement but was wondering if there is one on the 4.2L?

What do you think?

BernieBenz

Go for it, a good learning experience!

RichPugh

I'm about to do the same on my 4.2. I will however be doing the belts and pump which only add parts costs, not any significant labor time. I work at the dealership and as much as I'd like to do it here after hours myself or with a helpful tech, I am finally finding the benefit to letting a tech do it (at a slightly discounted labor rate of course) and relaxing LOL. DIY v8 timing belt jobs for me are coming to a stopping point haha.

Go for it! Dealer-Core!

RichPugh

If youre in there, it only ads negligible parts costs compared to another timing belt job... may as well replace belts (timing and serp) and a pump and rollers if you wanna splurge

Pete K (vegasguy)

is the lack of Audi tools, the Bentlel lists 11 special tools and not having a tech article for the V8 I'm unsure as to what is needed.

Pete K (vegasguy)

YGM

MP4.2+6.0

blau parts has a cheap rental deal when you buy the parts from them.

From just doing a belt change in the last few weeks on a regular A6 4.2, the two tools you really, really need are the pin that locks the crankshaft--screws into the motor near the tranny--and the bar that locks together the two cam pulleys. I did the job without removing the bumper, headlight or radiator, though only changed belts and not theromstat, cam belt tensioner or water pump.

If you know to get the belt driven fan off before you take off the serpentine belt you can skip the special fan removal tools. I used the gear puller tool on the cam pulleys, which was handy and useful in the confined space, but likely the pulleys would yield with just a rubber hammer. The other various tools like the tensioner holders and the like you can just improvise with regular metric tools, as long as you have a pretty complete set--deep and standard sockets, open end wrenches (including a very large one for the viscous fan LEFT HAND THREAD retaining nut--I think I used a Craftsman 1 1/4" on it as a proxy for a 30ishMM), and metric allen wrenches and allen sockets in the 6-8mm range.

And you want a print out of the Bentley manual section on it. Look on the A8 pages site for the similar 4.2 motor as another way to get up to speed.

Pete K (vegasguy)

Thanks, I'll let you know how it goes

Pete K (vegasguy)

BTW, do you have those 2 tools?