mishar

I am not really optimist there. I mean with Chinese Audi parts. It is easy to impose rules and control to Czechs.

MP4.2+6.0

...he might head over to the parts window and have them crack open a box on the geniune Audi D3 W12 water pump in the VW/Audi box and note...the plastic impeller. But heck, it's only a $30K motor. Maybe the upgraded Bentley gets the steel one, to add another pound or so to go with its steel body and the turbo's? Nah, somehow I think the (Swiss watch trained) motor engineers on their then flagship car and motor--let alone the flow guys working on a very complex motor design--knew just a bit more about impellers than the dealer mechanic.

Seriously, in this day and age that's not the key determinant of good vs. not so good here, even if plastic feels somehow cheap. A bit of a caution to not believe everything you may be hearing there at the dealer either.

Meanwhile, I feel for your situation. Painful. May be a blame game to come between the prior shop and Blau too. I have bought from Blau for a long time off and on, and they seem well intended and ethical. Did get a bad reservoir bottle on the C4 years ago now that failed quickly, and they stood behind replacing that without any big drama. But then I also bought a turn signal switch from AutohauzAZ at a good price (<$40) for the C5 last year that failed again within a year (in the cruise control function), made by Meyle and very OEM looking in its injection molding bits. I just shook my head at that false savings but then found a still good price ($65) from audiusaparts (Sunset Audi). Among the reasons I said in another response I have moved back toward known top drawer OEM or Audi branded parts in critical and hard to repair areas.

Seconding what Mishar said and your latest question/concern, they by definition should get the cam timing right when they reinstall the belt--involves locking the crankshaft with a steel pin at a known point (machined precise hole) and getting the belt on around the rollers, water pump, etc. by slipping last cam gear back on (for me, the passenger side typically) and then locking its position with a huge steel bar relative to the other cam gear before tightening those cam gear bolts fully into the camshaft. The only room for judgment here is tensioning the belt that can alter the apparent cam to crank position a bit, but it's all defined in the service procedure. Meanwhile, if by chance your earlier indie doesn't have those tools (or you didn't rent Blau's or someone else's for use), that would be a red flag here. I did it once without them on a C4 2.8, but you have to be really careful on marking everything, it's still not as precise as the really rigid tools method that gets it to small fractions of a degree the eye can't really see , and without the tools it makes the difference introduced at the belt tensioning step more of a judgment call if pre- vs. post. job belt tension is different. Maybe sounds a bit of pixie dust here, but with the usual tools the bottom line is it is not subject to much judgment or variability, and dials the motor valve timing in very closely to what the factory spec'ed to start.

By the way, if this is all a re do, make sure it gets real G12++ antifreeze in there. Should be what they are using now, but just in case. I've put enough pieces together (from Audi connected and antifreeze supplier sources) to conclude the original G12+ fill in at least most D3's (4.2's and W12's both) was likely not the hot set up for D3's over time. A much longer discussion, but that's the suggested punch line to it.

Diskman

The Saleri pump in my Blauparts kit has a plastic impeller. Knowing the quality issue Mister Bally had with his serpentine belt I discarded the one from the kit.

MP4.2+6.0

the OEM Audi pump for the W12--in aVW/Audi box with a part number--has a plastic impeller too. I don't think this is the ultimate quality test.

mishar

Agreed. It's quite rear that impeller cause any problem.

mikesd1980

Dont actually know the quality of the pump. The leak was coming from the mounting surface. I agreed to do the whole timing belt job because I thought it really wasnt done right the first time(might just let the dealer do it the next time) because of the water pump leaking and the serp belt looked really old(cracks).

The cam adjustment in bank 2 still came on after about 3 hours of driving the car. The car does drive alot smoother than before getting the timing job done again though. The dealer quoted $2900 to do the cam adjusters. I believe it was like 16 hours of labor for that job. Dont know if I should get that done and just ride it out till I trade it in sometime later this year.

mishar

Fixing leak from the mounting surface IS whole timing belt service, except changing rollers.

I don't know if you suspect that previous mechanic didn't change your serpent belt. Other than that he can't do anything wrong.

What happened with "timing off"? Was it off or not? If it is running smoother it must be that it was off.

I wouldn't waste $3K if I am going to trade it in soon. That can be big part of what you are going to get for that car.

a8 snob

Maybe try what I did on a water pump leak (shaft?) Added one bottle bars leaks NON - Aluminum coolant leak sealer and ran it until leak stopped in about 3 hours on the hobbs. During this time I clamped off the heater core, and yes my heater core had no heat BEFORE the water pump leak.

Leak never came back and I then proceeded to completely flush the system over and over while doing the heater core air lock,so I killed two birds and one stone.

My leak was about 2-4 oz at shutdown on level ground with the car HOT.