The tools used are pretty much standard, the only thing that I bought that I didn't already have was a 12 point 19mm socket to rotate the crank. It is a big job but not that hard, I spread it over 2 days so that I could take my time.I bought a kit from ECS which included the serpentine belt, the timing belt, the water pump, then tensioner, the tensioner pulley, and I bought a thermostat as well. Here's a taste of what you'll be looking at.

 

People have amazingly changed it out without taking the front end appart before on a 2000. It would be a major pita though. I would definately replace it though. ECS's kit is good. Thats the one I got.

 

jesus christ, looking at those pictures makes me really, really, not want to do my timing belt. [:@]

please, somebody tell me that it isn't as bad as it looks.

 

that's incredible! must have been pretty hard to keep the timing marks well alligned!

 

haha.. its really not as bad as it looks when you spread the mess out over about 8 hours and 18 beers. Looking back on those kind of pics makes me wonder how i did it sometimes.. im glad i have about 55k more miles till mine is due again.

 

Im talking about just the water pump. I misunderstood the question.

 

Seriously, it's not hard, just very time consuming. Believe me, my regular work is about as far from a mechanic as you can get and I managed to do it with no problems at all (like I mentioned, I spread it over 2 days to take my time). The longest parts were opening up and closing up.

 

thanks guys!

I think the part that scares me more than anything is all the wiring that has to be unplugged, like lights and impact sensors and whatever the hell else audi crammed into the bumper/rad support. do the DIY's include a step-by-step of opening up the front end?

 

yup.. I left one connection unplugged when i was done.. one day i wondered why my AC didnt work, and i found a green and pink connector unplugged from the AC condensor, watch out for that one.

 

Here is one write up I found useful http://www.audiworld.com/tech/eng35.shtml. I mainly used Bentley though because the engine layout on my 2002 wasn't the same as in the write up. One little trick for the connections, I put a piece of masking tape with a number on each side of the connection every time I unplugged something. All I had to do was look for the yellow pieces of tape and match the numbers.