Alright, I'm at 59000 right now, so its time to find a shop to do my TB or decide whether or not to do it myself.

I'm mechanically inclined, I am employed to work on go karts all day. I also do all of my own maintinence. I'm going to be replacing and properly aligning body panels on my car at some point in the near future.

Basically, I'm not worried about my skill, I'm worried about messing up. I can't afford to replace the head if I screw up but I can afford a shop to do it for me. I have a VW mech. friend that I could call up and get help from, but I doubt he would want to come out to my house and help for free.

My parents pay for my maintinence and will pay me 50% of what a shop would charge me for labor if I do it plus pay for parts, not to mention I feel I would really learn from the experience.

What I need from you guys is to convince me to do it, or scare me out of it.

 

I knew nothing about BT and I did iy myself with help from 2 of members of the forum.

BT setup is not hard if there is someone know even a little about it. It only takes time.

Installation the parts is not the problem, problem starts after you start to drive a BT car

I say go for it. Take your time, check everthing twine and no rush...

 

Read a lot about it beforehand. Get a phone number from someone who has done it, so when you do get to "wtf is this?" point, you have a quick reference. If you don't have a Bentley service manual, get one.

As with any major project, make sure you have plenty of time set aside.

 

TB is a pain but well worth it since the labor costs are so high. Set aside two days or more just incase. Here is the guide I used for my B5 and treated me well. http://www.audiworld.com/tech/eng35.shtml Lots of pictures and decent details.
Here is another for another point of view http://www.audiworld.com/tech/eng31.shtml

Good luck!

P.S. the bumper is hard to get off you will need to put some force on it, just wanted to reassure you.

 

Ha ha the first time is always the most freaky.

I am mechanically inclined and never ran into a single bump. Just be prepared to need things you think you might not need.

When I did my 2.8l A6 (should be the same engine for the A4) I needed:

Coolant (if you are replacing the water pump which is something I recommend because if it goes out a month later you'll be pissed)
Power Steering Fluid (one of the PS hoses comes across the front of the water pump)
Replace the tensioners and pulleys

It is really pretty easy except with the A4 you have to take the front end apart. Actual time on the engine is 2-3 hours. Just be careful and methodical. Oh and have metric allen wrenches.

Now if you want a tip for how to do it easily, use white out to mark the positions where the old belt sat on the cams and on the crank (two points each), set the crank at top dead center first. And then take off the old one, count the teeth between marks and mark the new belt and then line up the marks. It is the trick that mechanics use in the shops. My step-dad is a ford mechanic, he talked me through my first timing replacement on the phone (well I called when I had questions) (oh the nostalgia of my first time). Sounds like a cool idea eh? You can use the tool to hold the cams in place, but usually they don't move and I found I did not need it. Well I say that except the second time one of them rotated one tooth forward when I was trying to get the belt on and I had to use a pry to spin it back. <<<---- is that bad? Well 20,000 miles later I don't think it matters now if it was bad or not.