So its time to do the timing belt. Im going to order the ecstuning kit. I haven't worked on Audi's much before, but I'm very familiar with other cars. I plan on ordering the bently manual first, just to make sure I get everything done right. My question is, should I get the cam locking tool when ordering the kit? I know what it does, but how hard is it to avoid moving the cams when doing the belt replacemt? Any 2.8 specific benefit to getting it? is it only for the 2.8s? Thanks for any help

Kyle

 

Having just done my 99 2.8's belt, I'd say to get the locking tool. You can do it without the tool, but for me, itwas well worth the peace of mind that I didn't accidently move one cam while getting the belt on. I ended up having to take off both cam gears to replace the oil seals, so that bar was damned important to me to keep the cams from moving when I re-tightened the cam gear bolts. If you're sure you're not pulling the gears, then if you ink-mark the crap out of them and triple-check yourself, then you should be ok.

I don't know what the cost of ECS's kit is, but also look at blauparts.com You can rent the complete tool kit from them for 35 bucks, which has all of the neat Audi tools for doing the job (like a crankshaft locking pin).

 

Don't do the job without the cam lock bar, you can get away without using the crank holder though. The crank has never moved on me, plus i usually mark the gear after taking off the vibration so i know it didn't move.
Optimum would be to have the cam pulley puller as well so the cams can free wheel but thats not really needed. Just buy the cam lock bar and it will make doing the timing belt a breeze.

 

alright, thats what ima do. thanks for your input