close call with timing belt!

[reverse.rake]

yikes just thought i would let everyone know how lucky i am to have caught this and to watch out for it in the future. i was re installing a bi pipe that i had removed to take out a seized clutch fan yesterday and my hand hit this piece of plastic that attaches onto the timing belt cover and 'secures' the bipipe to it, well it broke like every other plastic bit in the engine bay does and sent one of the pieces of clip into the drivers side timing belt cover... oh joy! at first i thought ehhh maybe it fell through the covers and it will be ok to start, then i had traumatic flashbacks of my previous engines timing belt getting jammed with some debris and decided i would pull the covers and make 100% sure it wasnt there. really glad i did because when i pulled the cover back the 1/4"x1/4" square piece of plastic was chilling in between two of the belts teeth :0 .. lesson learned today is be careful around old plastic and check the covers if they havent been removed for a while and anything that may pose a threat later down the road (loose bolts, cracked covers, audi factory stickers, road grime etc..)

[zillarob]

Not even going to try to decipher that

[reverse.rake]

heh sorry im on mobile right now and didnt realize how big my wall of text really was.

-plastic bit broke behind timing cover
-cold outside, almost left it alone
-glad i didnt because i pulled cover to find plastic bit on belt
-im currently a happy b5 owner

[Yesmar]

one of the best sounds a mechanic hears is something hitting the floor.

[AvantGuard]

heh sorry im on mobile right now and didnt realize how big my wall of text really was.

-plastic bit broke behind timing cover
-cold outside, almost left it alone
-glad i didnt because i pulled cover to find plastic bit on belt
-im currently a happy b5 owner

Same thing happened to me about a week ago after an engine/trans pull for stage 3 upgrade. Noticed when I re-installed everything that the driver's side upper timing belt cover was missing a small piece of plastic on top. Didn't think much of it and was just going to epoxy a piece of plastic over it. However, when I started the engine I could hear this little scraping noise behind the timing belt cover. Pulled the cover and found a piece of a small worm gear clamp lodged between the cover and the belt. Chewed some of the rubber off the top of the belt, so looks like a replacement is in order before I start it again. Sure glad I took the time to check it out.