Probably Have a Broken Timing Belt... UGGHGHGHGHGHGH

[ThePaintballGuy]

Well as you can see my drive today did not even go close to as planned. I didn't even get the first paper served. I was out in the middle of nowhere when all the sudden my car started sounding REALLY bad... like a playing card in a fan bad. So we stopped and shut it down and started thinking... pretty sure the timing belt broke... or jumped... WHICH should not have happened since I just had it replaced about 6K miles ago by a shop here in Spokane. We decided to try and take it apart there to see what was going on but we got part way in and didn't have the right size socket to turn the crank by hand so we decided to just put it back together. SO now I get the fun job of tearing the car apart again to figure out what happened. The worst part about this is that when it broke we had NO cell service... so we ended up hiking around for a while trying to find a house and we couldn't find one... so we ended up hiking up a half mile hill/mountain to get service and called AAA to get a tow.

I have over an hour of video from this whole adventure that I will post later once I edit it.

Josh

SOUND CLIP!!!
Here is a sound clip. Obviously it's short because we shut it down after trying to see if we could figure out where it's coming from. We couldn't

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP0FmGLsAw0

[Europowerhaus]

(trip vidz) please dont, sounds cheezy....j/k sucks man

[ggar015]

oh my...

[AudiA4_20T]

crappy day man sorry

[rms-s4]

24mm 12point socket. NOW BUY ONE. and you could have taken the rightside upper cover off to see if the belt broke.

[1997gtx]

Well ... if it is the T-Belt ... I would imagine the shop should cover it, no?

6k miles is no good
--Adam

[ThePaintballGuy]

Yeah I had a 22mm 12 point for my jetta with me but not the 24mm one. Didn't think I would need it for a while.

And I hope the shop covers it. I guess we will see.... I am going to take it apart tomorrow.

Josh

[kastro]

if u take it apart.. they can say u fiddled around with it and fucked it up.. don't u think? voiding any responsibility by the shop... i'd take the towing bill and all that.. and make the shop pay.

[1997gtx]

^ OP noted he put it all back together. Shop will never know.
--Adam

[gointoscott]

Wow man you should change your name to frimmel2

You are having almost as many as problems as he did with his. Although I dont see you beating the living tar out of your car like he did. (No hate frimmel even though you exercised the turbo's as much as you did it still should of been more reliable for you )

That sucks man. The shop better cover it. they must of installed it wrong.

One thing though. If it jumps even by 1 tooth I thought the valves would hit a piston so I doubt it jumped at all, and if it was still running the timing belt probably isnt broken. But if it sounded that bad, you did the right thing to pull over and shut it off. I woudlnt try starting it at all until you find out for sure its the TB or not. If you bend valves thats thousands of dollars.

Keep us informed.

[ThePaintballGuy]

Yeah it was a pretty bad noise... I have it on video. I will post it later tonight.

josh

[kastro]

^ OP noted he put it all back together. Shop will never know.
--Adam

ya then noted he was going to take appart again tomorrow..

[infinkc]

yuck, hope its not too bad.

[AudiA4_20T]

i dont think your timing belt slipped

[ThePaintballGuy]

SOUND CLIP!!!
Here is a sound clip. Obviously it's short because we shut it down after trying to see if we could figure out where it's coming from. We couldn't

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP0FmGLsAw0

josh

[infinkc]

hope your not another victim from the WM kit :(

[ThePaintballGuy]

i don't think it caused this... it better not have.

VIDEO IS UP!

josh

[JaVa]

yeah thats not a TB, would vote dropped valve or rod bearning....

[ThePaintballGuy]

I think it's a rod... there are no misfires at all so i don't think it's a valve.

Josh

[JaVa]

it wouldnt run if it was the TB, and sounds like a rod then.

[ThePaintballGuy]

yeah thats my guess now too.

Josh

[1997gtx]

Obviously not the TB ... Sucked up something perhaps ... Rod ... Who knows. All we do know is that a sound like that is never good. Sorry dude.
--Adam

[Matt Danger]

Based on the sound from the video it sounds like the timing belt damper may have lost tension. The noise might be the loose belt bouncing around. You'll have to confirm this by pulling everything apart and seeing if the belt is loose or not.

I make this prediction because I had my damper fail on my car this summer and the sound was similar. I had done the TB job about 2500 before and one night the noise developed out of nowhere. I pulled everything apart and found the damper had lost tension. I replaced the damper & the timing belt (it got a little chewed up). In my case the belt did not skip a tooth and there was no engine damage.

For reference, this is video of an AW member's car that had the same problem a few month's ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYEmhPLpi3o

Your noise is a little louder though so I donno.

[gointoscott]

Again I stress dont start the car again until you know what it is, yoru just asking for trouble if it does break or skip, or if its a rod or somethign else it could ruin your engine.

You probably are not, but after seeing the video it just makes me cringe every time I think of you starting the thing thinking something could go pop. Then dead silence

[ThePaintballGuy]

Yeah the car is not getting started again until whatever is wrong is fixed. I will check out the damper thing tomorrow. Thanks for the heads up.

Josh

[ThirdStrike]

were you under boost when this happened? what were the driving conditions?
if that belt came off or snapped your car wouldnt even start.
hope you figure it out wihtout too much cost.
good luck man

[ThePaintballGuy]

I was going about 10mph on a dirt road. And no i wasn't in boost.

Josh

[highPSI-S4]

Damn that is not good, I've been there before and it sucks- But if you have some coin it just meens a nice upgrade.

Hope you get it worked out.

[S4 in_lowplaces]

Sounds like a rod to me.

Just so everyone knows, your timing belt COULD be off by one tooth and not bend any valves. Just one, not two.

[AudiTurboS400]

that sucks hope its not the timing belt

[1997gtx]

Any posibility of a rock getting sucked in?
--Adam

[tschmale]

May seem silly, but you did check to make sure that you did not get a stick or something wedged into acc. drive belt. Also check the fan that is attached to the engine to make sure it is not hitting the shroud.

[CONTROL ONE]

Why did you remove the entire front bumper? You can check the condition of the timing belt simply by removing the upper cover as someone else mentioned.

Also, if there's a chance it's covered under warranty, I definitely wouldn't be pulling it apart like that, again, as previously mentioned by someone else.

[Chknkatsu]

going 10 mph bending a rod? hmm, sounds unlikely. spun bearing? checked your fluids? (as stupid as it sounds)

[alosh]

this might soudn stupid too but is your radiator fan hitting one of your intercooler pipes...this happened to me and scared the shit outta me

[Chknkatsu]

yup, check the dumbest possibilities. you never know

[alias747]

this might soudn stupid too but is your radiator fan hitting one of your intercooler pipes...this happened to me and scared the shit outta me

Not a stupid suggestion at all, I dont think. The same thing happened to me many times too. I def think its a valid thing to look at. It almost sounds the same too. CHECK IT.

[ThePaintballGuy]

May seem silly, but you did check to make sure that you did not get a stick or something wedged into acc. drive belt. Also check the fan that is attached to the engine to make sure it is not hitting the shroud.

Yeah I checked that first before I did anything else and everything was fine. I also checked my oil and that is right where it should be (it just got new oil last weekend too so it's not old).

The reason I took the front bumper off was because I was going to check and see if the tensioner had broken or come loose. If it had I was going to put it back but I was missing one of my sockets and couldn't get it the rest of the way off.

Josh

[ThePaintballGuy]

Why did you remove the entire front bumper? You can check the condition of the timing belt simply by removing the upper cover as someone else mentioned.

Also, if there's a chance it's covered under warranty, I definitely wouldn't be pulling it apart like that, again, as previously mentioned by someone else.

No the car is not under warranty. :(

And I would rather do the work myself knowing its done right than have a shop screw it up again.

Josh

[ThePaintballGuy]

Yeah I checked all the little things first. The oil is fine (didn't see any metal shavings either but I didn't drain any so IDK yet.

I am going to pull the timing covers off tomorrow and see whats up in that area.

josh