Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Timing belt change on the Popemobile/Phaeton


S sent me an update and photos on his project. The 2005 Phaeton hit the 60,000 mile mark so he decided to change the belt.

"I'm nearly done with the timing belt job. I'm waiting for a little plastic
piece to arrive in the mail today before I can put the bumper cover back on
and drive the P. It's a part that had a crack in it, right below the RH
headlight, no idea why but I suspect that it was not an impact but somebody
twisting the headlight washer nozzle while it was extended. The bumper cover
had no damage on the outside and the date stamps show it's an original from
August 2004. No big deal, the part is $47 which is why I decided to just
replace it.

The timing belt replacement took me awhile but I was intentionally going slow so
I wouldn't screw it up since we are dealing with an interference engine here
... if you get the camshafts misaligned then the pistons will hit the valves
... $$$.  I also took plenty of notes and about 400 (!) photos in the process so
I can write up a step-by-step procedure in the future. Anyway, it's all back
together and I started and ran it in the garage. I'm still in the process of
bleeding the air out of the coolant system, which is a major pain on this
car, but that will have to wait until the bumper cover is back on.

Attached are photos of the area where the water pump is mounted, a detail
shot of the new timing belt (not yet tensioned in the photo) and the special
tool to hold the camshafts in place so the timing doesn't get messed up
during the job."


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