Hello,

My car was running great but I decided to preemptively change my timing belt (plus other belts, water pump, etc ..., I used a kit from ecstuning) and my valve covert gasket. When changing my valve cover gasket, I had to take out my ignition coils and I noticed a little bit of oil down there. Anyway, I cleaned it out, put it back together, tried to crank, but it wouldn't. URHHH I must have fowled my spark plugs so I bought and installed new cheap "autolite" spark plugs (I didn't set the gap but the box was quoted as 0.032" and I think my car needs 0.029 to 0.032"?). The car then started after a few seconds of turning, it belched out some heavy smoke from the tail pipe (only for the first few seconds of being on), idled roughly for a while, and the check engine light came on. Since this I've driven the car < 20 miles and everything seems fine now except I have no power/response at or under 2k rpms and the car seems to slightly stutter/putter when idle (misfire?). Essentially, the car seems normal as long as I'm above 2k rpm. Any ideas on what I messed up to cause this? Did I put in shitty spark plugs? Perhaps there's still some oil down there on the plugs or coils since I've only driven < 20 miles? Or could it be something more serious like me putting on the tbelt (or other belt/s) on incorrectly?

Cheers,

James

 

Also, my check engine light is still on. I've ordered a scan tool but it'll be another few days before it gets here ....

 

what would be the symptom if my timing belt was put on with a 180 degrees misalignment?

 

You neglected to mention which engine is in your car :-P

 

it's a 1999 audi a4, 1.8t, FWD, AEB, manual

 

You did put shitty plugs in your car. Spend the $12 for real plugs. Be sure they are gapped at .032". Try that and then see how the car runs. If it's still screwed up, verify your timing marks all align. A lot of that sounds like possible mechanical timing issues.

 

Is there an easy way for me to verify that the time is aligned without having to take the front bumper and radiator off again?

 

Unfortunately no. You can try it by taking off the timing inspection cover so you can see the bracket on the exhaust cam sprocket, then try to get light on the crank pulley to see when the timing marks align (you did take the time to thoroughly clean up the front of the engine and all the parts you removed right?), but it's going to be very aggravating. You're better off pulling the bumper and going to partial service position - move the core out a few inches without taking it off or unhooking everything.

 

if your timing was off 180, I'm pretty sure you would have done some serious damage by now... Is your car chipped? If it is, you need to gap your plugs to .028.

Check for any vac lines you may have left disconnected. I had an issue after my TB job, came to find out I forgot to tighten one hose clamp and had a boost leak. Once I found and fixed it, everything was fine.

 

If the cams were off by 180 degrees the car wouldn't even start - fuel would be injected and the plug fired near the top of the engine's exhaust stroke.