[Vwdiesel] autopsy report

[Shalyn Shourds]

I just was out pulling pieces off the TDI in preparation for a repair of 
the major timing belt/head crunch from December. 

I already had the head off and tonight I pulled the passenger side 
engine mount and the lower shrouds off the timing belt area.  (BTW, no 
matter what the TDIclub.com website says, you can completely remove the 
passenger mount with the engine in the car.)  There were little charred 
bits of timing belt and kevlar cords everywhere when I pulled the lower 
cover off.  When I pulled the middle cover off (the upper of the two 
metal ones), the big roller dropped out.  That would be the roller with 
a large bolt supposedly holding it in.  The bolt broke off at the 
block.  My guess is that the bolt initially cracked and then the roller 
deflected under belt tension and rubbed up against an aluminum shroud 
part causing alumium to gall to the suface of the roller and grind up 
the belt.  Not sure if the belt broke after or before the bolt gave way. 

At this point, I can't remember if I'd had that roller off or not.  I 
can't think of why I would have had to remove it, though I do have a 
vague memory of holding it in my hand.  I do have a positive memory of 
tensioning the belt, messing with it for a while, turning the engine 
over by hand, then, when giving the engine a pre-start final check, 
seeing that the tensioner was loose and re-tightening it.  My guess is 
that the bolt cracked at that point causing the loss of tension and it 
was only a matter of a very short time (30 miles) before it let go 
completely. 

Now, I can eventually deal with this problem at hand though I'm not sure 
how to extract a bolt with 3" of clearance between it and the frame, but 
I'll work that out.  My concern is that I've now had a tensioner suffer 
metal fatigue and now this bolt.  I have a really bad feeling that 
something is rotten in Denmark, no offense to our resident Dane.  
Anybody know what could be killing my hardware?  When it was running, it 
looked like it was running smoothly without any lumpiness. 

All this isn't speeding up my project.  I'm thinking about pulling the 
engine to give me more room to work, though there's a lot of parts I'd 
have to pull and I'd have to borrow a hoist.  I wonder if this one pulls 
from the top or bottom....

-Shalyn

'85 Jetta TD
'00 Jetta TDI project