timing belt DIY question

**doublezero30** · 05-26-2008 08:13 AM

so its about that time i need to do my timing belt. thinking of doing it myself and am pretty comfortable with everything except one thing. lining up the belt. im just wondering if i should make marks right when i take the timing belt cover off and then line it up to those? or do i need to turn the crank before making marks? thanks.

**A4ringedONE8T** · 05-26-2008 08:27 AM

Put the crank at TDC before you take the old belt off, then verify the crank as well as the head is at TDC after you put the new belt back on

**A4ringedONE8T** · 05-26-2008 08:28 AM

And the marks are already there, no need to mark anything

**doublezero30** · 05-26-2008 08:43 AM

alright how do i know when its at TDC?

**A4ringedONE8T** · 05-26-2008 09:59 AM

Originally Posted by doublezero30

alright how do i know when its at TDC?

There is a white tick mark on the crank pulley which lines up with a mark on the lower timing belt cover (the metal one) and there is also a white tick mark on the pass side cam gear that lines up with a mark on the valve cover

**doublezero30** · 05-26-2008 05:54 PM

alright and they should be lined up straight (|) not at an angle (/) right? one of the picture in the DIY shows them at an angle kind of. thats why i ask.

**old guy** · 05-26-2008 05:59 PM

Check post #3. follow my directions and you can't go wrong: Clicky click

**pondside36** · 05-26-2008 06:31 PM

^^^ this worked well for me...

**lookaught** · 05-27-2008 11:24 AM

Originally Posted by doublezero30

alright and they should be lined up straight (|) not at an angle (/) right? one of the picture in the DIY shows them at an angle kind of. thats why i ask.

Theoretically, the marks should like up perfectly. In practice, they can be off by a little bit. On my car, with the crank at tdc the mark on the cam pulley was off to the right (cw) by about 1mm. When the new belt was on it was like this again. The OG tip about marking the belts is helpful to get the belt on the correct teeth when there is no tension, but the TDC marks are the tried and true indicators once the dampner is released. I found it helpful to mark the crank sprocket and the aluminum behind it with a razor (etched) just to have a reference to make sure nothing moved while the harmonic balancer is removed (which they did, a little), b/c the tdc marks are on the pully and cover that can't be seen when they are removed!

This is a 1.8t, not an F1 engine. The marks may be slightly, minimally off from perfect alignment and this is fine. You run into trouble if you are off by 1/2 or a full tooth, but even then you won't get interference, it will just run like crap. Luckily,

I actually wrote up a decently extensive supplement to the DIY by Yoogene but it was never approved by the mods so nobody can see it. It covered this and about 10 other tips for the install that I noted when I did my TB a few weeks back. Oh well, I tried. Good luck, its not really all that hard except for the pretensioning of the belt with that double eccentric pulley. Took me a little while to figure out just where to snug it down, but after 30 minutes of thought I pulled out the dampner retainer and it was perfectly aligned and tight on the first try.

FWIW I put blue locktite on pretty much everything. Its peace of mind and a corrosion inhibitor all in one, and I can't imagine not using it, even though the bentley states that its not required.

**dougyfresh** · 05-27-2008 12:02 PM

Originally Posted by A4ringedONE8T

Put the crank at TDC before you take the old belt off, then verify the crank as well as the head is at TDC after you put the new belt back on

That's the way to do it. I also marked the belt and pulleys with a sharpie and then counted the teeth between to verify I had everything (new) aligned perfectly. Like in Old Guy's post I've quoted below. Guess you can call it OCD or just meticulous craftsmanship

Originally Posted by old guy

Here is another tip for lining up your timing belt. I have changed a lot of TB's over the years. I've only changed one on 1.8T but my method has worked well with all of them, including the 1.8T. Before you remove your old TB I am sure you will line up the timing marks as described in all the DIY's. But you need to make a few additional marks with a paint pen. Mark a tooth on the cam sprocket and also paint a line across the TB notch that engages the tooth. It can be any cam sprocket tooth. Now do the same thing on the crank sprocket. Mark any tooth that is engaged in the TB and paint a line across the TB notch that engages the tooth. After you take off your timing belt lay it on the ground on its side. Position the new TB exactly on top of the old TB and line it up notch for notch. It should look like a double wide TB at this point. Mark your new TB to match your old belt. Now when you install your new belt all you have to do is to line up the paint marks on the new TB with the marked cam and crank sprockets. If you follow this procedure it is virtually impossible to put the belt on wrong. It really takes the worry about whether or not you moved either sprocket and whether or not your timing marks are lined up properly. In fact, with this method you don't even have to use the factory cam and crank timing marks at all to change out the belt.

Have fun!

**old guy** · 05-27-2008 06:56 PM

OK. First of all I will apologize up front for everyone that I may piss off. But you know what? I've had a really shitty day so I killed about and ½ bottle of JD and I decided to check out AZ for a little relaxation and right now I really don't give a shit. Anyway, I see a few follow up comments to my TB alignment procedure. And I'm telling ya, follow my procedure and you CAN NOT DO IT WRONG!! Lookaught's comment about whether or not the belt is under tension doesn't make any difference at all. Just mark the two pulleys and belt notches as I described. For the sake of argument lets say there are 70 notches between the marks. What f#@*ing difference does it make if the belt is tight or there is slack in the belt?? 70 notches is 70 notches. PERIOD!! Put one belt on top of the other and mark them accordingly. If they do not line up EXACTLY THE SAME guess what?? You have the WRONG BELT!! Put the old one back on and get the right one. I have probably changed 18 or 20 timing belts and I figured this procedure out after the first one and I can tell you IT WORKS!! I don't even bother with lining up timing marks and finding TDC. If the new belt matches the old belt and the marks line up you are good to go. PERIOD!! I even changed one on my kids Escort (early model with non interference head) and ended up turning the crank several times with the timing belt off to check out the distributer and just lined the marks up as outlined and everything worked fine. Don't stress yourself out over hard to see and hard to line up alignment marks. Mark the pulleys and belt and be done with it!!

OK, I'm through. Good luck with the TB change. go ahead and line up the cam TDC marks and the crappy crank pulley marks on the lower half of the TB cover but be sure to follow my instructions so when you aren't sure about the other marks you will have something to fall back on.

cheers!

Old Guy

**617 Bones** · 05-27-2008 08:18 PM

^^ What Old Guy said!

I lined up TDC and the pulleys like normal but I also marked it up like Old Guy suggested JUST IN CASE. I figured "WTF, it's not gonna hurt!"

Piece of cake!

**dougyfresh** · 05-27-2008 08:34 PM

Originally Posted by old guy

OK. First of all I will apologize up front for everyone that I may piss off. But you know what? I've had a really shitty day so I killed about and ½ bottle of JD and I decided to check out AZ for a little relaxation and right now I really don't give a shit. Anyway, I see a few follow up comments to my TB alignment procedure. And I'm telling ya, follow my procedure and you CAN NOT DO IT WRONG!! Lookaught's comment about whether or not the belt is under tension doesn't make any difference at all. Just mark the two pulleys and belt notches as I described. For the sake of argument lets say there are 70 notches between the marks. What f#@*ing difference does it make if the belt is tight or there is slack in the belt?? 70 notches is 70 notches. PERIOD!! Put one belt on top of the other and mark them accordingly. If they do not line up EXACTLY THE SAME guess what?? You have the WRONG BELT!! Put the old one back on and get the right one. I have probably changed 18 or 20 timing belts and I figured this procedure out after the first one and I can tell you IT WORKS!! I don't even bother with lining up timing marks and finding TDC. If the new belt matches the old belt and the marks line up you are good to go. PERIOD!! I even changed one on my kids Escort (early model with non interference head) and ended up turning the crank several times with the timing belt off to check out the distributer and just lined the marks up as outlined and everything worked fine. Don't stress yourself out over hard to see and hard to line up alignment marks. Mark the pulleys and belt and be done with it!!

OK, I'm through. Good luck with the TB change. go ahead and line up the cam TDC marks and the crappy crank pulley marks on the lower half of the TB cover but be sure to follow my instructions so when you aren't sure about the other marks you will have something to fall back on.

cheers!

Old Guy

WOW. You must have really had a bad day today. I hope things are alright.

**Casius** · 05-27-2008 08:46 PM

I lined it up with the TDC marks but made my own as well. I did this last year on mine so forgive my memory but one of them was off pretty good too, I think there is a cover over the main pulley that has a mark, that one was almost a tooth off the mark, it was all good though. The hard part I found was getting it back on without moving it at all.
It's a long job if you've never pulled the lock carrier off before cause that's a bit messy but take your time and take some time off work :P

good luck