Hi everyone! I am new to the Audi world, but not new to working on cars. I have been doing a lot of research but thought I would share my story and ask for a little help.


I purchased a 2002 Audi A4 (1.8t AWD, Auto). It had a blown head gasket and the guy wanted to get rid of it. For $400, I had it towed to my house. I started to tear it down and pulled the top of the motor apart. I removed the front end, the accessories, all the connections, and finally the head. Definitely a blown head gasket, however there was another problem.

One piston had blown a hole right through the side. After inspection and careful consideration, I decided to pull the oil pan. What a pain in the a$$! Got the pistons out, honed the cylinders, replaced the bad piston, new piston rings, and sent the head to the shop.

Luckily, none of the valves were bent. The head was an easy rebuild and machined. I cleaned up everything, reassembled, new water pump and timing belt.

Now that I have everything back together, I was able to get the car cranked and started. It runs pretty smooth, but it takes a lot of cranking to get it running.

The car was sluggish. The throttle response is horrible. And now it has a CEL.

I bought a Vag-Com cable and hooked up VCDS Lite. I read the codes tonight and it says that the timing is off (along with knock sensors, camshaft position, etc.).

Questions that I have not been able to answer:
1. How do I go about figuring out this timing issue? I had lined up the pulleys to top-dead-center, but obviously that didn't work.

2. Do I need to take it apart, remove the timing belt, and try to do it again?

3. What are the chances that I bent a valve if I am one tooth off in timing and only ran the car for 30 minutes?

Sorry, I know that is a lot at once, but it has been a long couple weeks working on this. And the vacuum systems on these cars are enough to confuse most people! Respect to everyone out there who understands it!

Now for the fun part......pictures.

 

Check your cam timing, in particular the intake camshaft relative to the exhaust cam. There are supposed to be a particular number of rollers (16?) between some marks on the sprockets. I know that there are postings and tech articles especially regarding this, so before running the engine any more, I'd check that and the crank-exhaust cam belt sprocket setting. The engine should not be hard to start when all is set. However, there are plenty of things to cause that besides mechanical timing; a stuck-open carbon canister purge valve, intake air leaks from multiple possible places, low fuel pressure, etc.