[V6-12v] Timing belt tools

[James4ihl at aol.com]

Hi guys --

My 2 pennys worth:

All of the 'tool-less' procedures are fine but they do work on the 
assumptions that A) the person who did the belt previously aligned it perfectly, B) 
there has been no slippage in the interim, C) that you are prepared for 'a little' 
innacuracy which, as Tom pointed out, wouldn't bend the valves, but wouldn't 
exactly optimise performance either.

In my case, I have a cause for concern that they weren't done properly last 
time by a non-Audi and not particularly competent mech (before I bought the 
car). Therefore, I'd need the tool, because I'm checking the alignment and 
re-setting it. Remember that those cam sprockets are infinitely adjustable, so you 
don't have to be a whole tooth out on the belt, you can be a fraction out...

I think Tom has suggested a very sensible solution, which I had considered 
before myself, but had to reject because I don't know a good machine shop! I'd 
certainly be very happy to contribute as part of a group buy of the original 
tools to make copies from (you can get them from Zelenda in the US and pay 
dollar prices), and then purchasing the copied tools at a greatly-less-than-retail 
price!

How many others would be willing to do the same? I'll cast my Yes vote now...

Cheers,
James
P.S. Rokas - that sounds like a terrible Audi dealership, if even they are 
not using the special tools for such a critical procedure when they have them 
sitting right there! I happen to know that my local dealership do use them, 
because I've seen them on a car when I was inspecting mine in the workbay one 
time. Sounds good that you're doing the work yourself these days!

In a message dated 23/2/04 10:43:27 pm, emsluis at hotmail.com writes:


> Just my 2 cents:  I while  back I had the timing belt / water pump on my
> 92 100CS replaced a the dealership.  When I got it back I could see
> paint marks on the pulleys so I asked the service manager what those
> were for, mostly out of curiosity.  He told me that was how they made
> sure that nothing moved while the belt was off.  Having seen many posts
> about the timing belt topic on these cars I asked about the special
> tools to lock everything in place.  He said something like "oh yes, we
> use those too, the paint is a back up".  A couple weeks later I was out
> with some friends and one of the people that came along that I didn't
> know turned out to be a mechanic at the same dealership where my car had
> been worked on.  I asked him about the special tools and the paint and
> he told me that they always just used the paint and that he was sure
> they had the special tools there but he had never used them nor had he
> been told to.  This was an Audi dealer by the way.  Just thought that
> might be interesting to add to the topic.  I did almost all of the work
> on my car myself after that.
> 
> Ed.