I am posting this so as to maybe help someone else who encounters timing belt issues.

First and foremost, of course, is fix it before if breaks. Mine broke at 59097 miles and the repairs were about $1,200, with me doing all of the labor except the head rebuild ($280). If you have more than 40,000 miles on your belt its time to worry, in my opinion.

2- The tensioner failed and that's what killed the belt.

3 - I installed the Integrated Engineering manual tensioner kit ($199). Doesn't come with instructions, but IE is very helpful by phone or e-mail. Here's the heads-up:

It IS possible to overtighten the belt with this kit. You'll know because when the engine is at idle it will emit a low-pitch "moan" from the belt area. Just a very minor loosening corrected this on mine. Its quiet now.

4. One of those gas tank siphon bulb things works great to suck out anti-freeze.

4. Check your orange dipstick funnel. Mine was brittle and when I messed with it, it broke into a bunch of pieces. It was like it had been baked or something.

5. A 3/8-16 tap is close enough to a 10mm-1.50 pitch to chase the first 1-2 threads in the turbo flange. Of course, if you don't bung it up in the first place, this is moot.

Anyway, the car runs great now, and I couldn't have done it without all of the advice I received from members of this forum. So, thanks again.

 

dtb,

can you tell me the mixing ratio for g-12 i am doing my timing belt this week end.
i just bought the car 2000 audi tt 1.8 180 and the dealer is not sure if it was done. i looked at the belt no cracks just some white line on the top of the belt.
my friend said thats some kind of lubricant. not sure. how can you tell if the belt is going?

 

sorry the car has 113k miles

 

Mix the G12 with DISTILLED water only, 50:50.

Wow! 113k. Don't worry about inspecting the belt - just replace it as you are planning to do. Be sure to do the tensioner and the water pump while you are at it.

Good luck

 

Ty, I just showed my car to my mechanic he looked at the belt. He informed me the belt is new. He showed me it's a gates belt and it was soft. He explained to me it was good. So I guess I am not doing my belt this week end.
Just for my own knowledge what are the signs that your belt is going.

 

That's a bit of good luck.

In my particular case there was a clickety-clack sound coming from the engine. I mistook this for tappet noise. In reality, it was the tensioner flopping around as the gas-spring had failed. As a result the belt was too loose and began to lose teeth until it finally stripped off about 16 consecutive teeth.

 

oh thank god my car is smooth and zero sound. but thank you for you input.

 

how hard is it to do this job? Ive pulled transmissions in a jeep but never my TT.

 

There is a diy on the 1.8t sticky on vortex. go through it and see.