My girl just bought a 99' Passat with the 2.8L and I'm not entirely sure if the timing belt or anything has been done to it so I told her it's a good idea to get it done... I've been browsing online and found ecs tuning has timing belt kits and what not... The car has 134k miles and I'm a bit worried it's going to break and she definitely can't afford that.

This a good place to get the kits from?

There are 3 packages as well...

Standard
Ultimate
Ultimate Plus

I would at least get the Ultimate as it comes with idler roller, tensioner roller, thermostat and water pump.. it does not come with hydraulic tensioner though, how necessary is that?

Thanks all for any input, it is well appreciated!

 

tensioner is the most important part. its the part that fails

 

I'd take a kit from FCP groton or Blauparts over ECS for the price. I've used bother of the former and they're top quality parts.

 

and you can rent tools from blauparts... I used them almost 2 years ago, and 20K miles... still no issues.

 

thanks for the replies

the hydraulic tensioner is a vital component to change?

most of the kits seem to not come with that, just the idler roller and tensioner roller...

the kit from fcpgroton is pretty cheap but doesn't come with much, the one from blauparts is the same as ECS and comes with about the same...

she is pretty broke right now so if we could get away with the cheaper kit that would be great, do we need a kit with all of the goodies in it or is the cheaper one enough to get away with for a while?

Vw Passat Timing Belt - Passat Timing Belt Kit - 2.8 Liter

Volkswagen Passat Timing Belt Water Pump Kit (98-05)

 

If you're going to do the work yourself then I highly recommend the BLAUParts kit AND the set of rental tools for the timing belt swap. Said tools will make the job much easier and also help assure the timing of the engine and cams is still intact once the job is complete.

 

Arguably the most vital component

 

thank you again for all of the replies, i believe i am going to do it myself, no money to pay for labor... as is the case with most diy'er's...haha

does the blauparts kit come with the hydraulic tensioner? i don't see it on the list of parts that the kit comes with but i could be blind.

I will be ordering it tonight if it comes with everything i should need, besides tools...

well there's the $249 kit http://www.blauparts.com/proddetail.asp?prod=GH21112-C

and an "enhanced kit" for $329 .. http://www.blauparts.com/proddetail.asp?prod=GH21112-1C

would be fantastic if i could get away with the $249 kit...

and i see it's like $38 for the tool rental kit? does it include tools for all of the install including water pump, serpentine belt, thermostat? etc...

 

Yes the $249.95 BLAUParts kit comes with the tensioner (I just put that kit on my son's car), if you look at the picture the circular pulley in the lower right portion is the tensioner.

As for the toolkit, no, it doesn't come with what you need for the "...water pump, serpentine belt, thermostat? etc...", those items just require normal tools; nothing special about them.

 

I ordered my kit from FCP groton. I went with this one... Audi/Volkswagen Passat Timing Belt and Water Pump Kit (A4 A6 Passat)

I also bought the JHM 2.7t/2.8 timing belt DVD. It helped sooo much. I didn't use any cam/crank lock tools. There's no need. It's $30 dollars and like I said, absolutely no need for a cam lock bar.

If you have ANY questions about the tools or process of it PM me.