Hi all,

I am replacing the Tbelt, W/P, seals, T-stat, etc on a 2000 A6 with 2.7T (APB). This is my first such encounter with any Audi.

Basic question: Which cylinder is supposed to be at Top Dead Center (firing) when you have the crank lock tool in place and the cam bar installed through the cam plates?

Reason for asking: Service info statesthat cylinder #1 is the front most cyl on the passenger bank. When my engine is locked in the "service position" with the factory tools, cylinder #3 (rear, passenger bank) is at TDC (firing). This has been verified with a leakdown test and piston height inspection through the spark plug hole of all 3 cyls on the passenger bank. I've never seen an engine before that didn't reference cyl #1 TDC to the timing marks, or in this case, just the crank pulley mark. Even ifthe enginewas set to TDC ofthe companion cylinder to cyl #1, that would be cyl #6, given a firing order of 1-4-3-6-2-5.

Thanks for any help, I can not find info to support/make sense ofthis observation anywhere!

 

Hi. According to my Bentley Service Manual, before you start a timing belt service you need to ensure that you rotate the crankshaft until the timing marks on the crankshaft pulley and the lower crankcase cover are aligned. This is your crankshaft top dead center(TDC). I hope this helps. If you're attempting this service yourself, you will save yourself a lot of headaches and probably a wad of cash by having a service manual handy. Good Luck!

 

Thanks for the response. I'm a capable technician with Alldata service info; I'mjust unfamiliar with the 'Audi way' and would like to make sense of what is happening here. Either the service info is wrong or Audi doesn't key to #1 TDC with the service tools installed.

There is no such term as crankshaft TDC per se, to be specific I'm curious about TDC for cylinder #1. TDC is used in reference to the position that any givenpiston is in when it is asclose to the combustion chamber as possible. If, for some bizzare german Audi reason, they wish to make the marks on the pulley and cover align when the crank is at cyl #3 TDC, then so be it. I would just love to find out ifmy service info is wrong or if Audi issimply nonstandard in this regard. I've verified my info with other sources, and it is all the same reprinted data from the original OE source. This doesn't rule out that it is wrong. It could be a German or Euro spec diagram that calls the RT front cyl #1, whereas US spec cars call the LT front cyl #1. I don't know, but this is frustrating not haveing 100% understanding of something otherwise so simple.

Thanks again for responding.

 

To follow up, a Euro specialist got back with me and said thatAudi does intentionally have the timing marks reference cylinder 3 nearTDC. There's no specific reason that I can see they would do it, it's just different than the Asian and domestics I typically work on. I still don't get the bizzare and contradictory diagram at the bottom of this illustration:

http://autorepair.about.com/library/...bl-fo-1251.htm

Oh well, hopefully this helps someone in the future.

 

i would highly recommend the bentley's manual. I trid the alldata diy site and found the Bentley's to be much more informative. Just my 2cents.