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Cam follower replacement -don't do this

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Old 01-28-2018, 12:40 PM
Hgk2's Avatar
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Default Cam follower replacement -don't do this

Wanted to share my long story of the replacement of the cam follower on my wife's 2006 A4 2.0 so you don't make my mistake. Her car has 80,600 miles and is unmodified. After reading the stories of what can happen if the cam follower goes, I went to audi. I learned from reading posts here, that audi extended the warranty to have this replaced to 10 years. Unfortunately, audi told me my wife's car is now 12 years old (which I knew but was hoping they might throw me a courtesy) and they can't honor the extended warranty on this part. So I purchased the kit to do it myself from ECS. I watched all the how to videos on YouTube and purchased all the necessary tools, such as the 8mm double square needed to take out the banjo bolt. Everything was going smoothly and I got the pump out without any issues. The hardest part was getting the banjo bolt out. Using the 12 inch 3/8 drive extension, as seen in a video, and holding onto the bolt with a magnetic extension, i carefully lowered it down through the maze of connectors and hoses in my path. While the follower was worn (the black coating on the bottom was gone) it didn't look too bad if it was the original, which I presume, but I was time to replace nonetheless. Everything went back together smoothly, and all that was left was to get the banjo bolt back up through the maze and into position. Well, that's when the one thing I didn't want to do happened. I dropped the bolt. Spent nearly two hours cursing and searching but couldn't find it anywhere. Of course I had to also do this on a Sunday, and of course Audi is the only place you can get the bolt from, unless you want to wait for mail order. So, seeing how I work during the week and wouldn't be able to get to it again until the following weekend, I did what I thought was the right thing, which was have it towed (AAA) to the local Firestone and have them get the bolt from Audi and just put it in. Thinking they would charge my an hour of labor plus cost of the $10 bolt, I figured it was not too bad for my stupidity of not taping the bolt on the extension. Wrong-got the call from the manager telling me they would basically have to take the entire thing apart to get to where they could put the bolt in and the job would be 2 1/2 hours. I explained how they could simply get to the bolt with a 12" extension from underneath. I then got how I was talking to an ASE certified mechanic with x years experience and no way they can get to it like that. And that he understood what I was trying to do and then got myself into a jam and wanted them to fix it. After trying my best to remain calm - I said that's how it came out and it would be silly to take the entire thing out again to put the bolt back on which goes on last. The manager agreed to look at it again to see. Got a call back about an hour later and he agreed that they could probably get the one fuel line on (talking about the one that requires the 17mm stubby), but there was no way they could get there hand in there to get to the banjo bolt without taking everything out of it's way and it would take a least 2 hours of labor, but I could pay him $10 for the bolt and take the car back if I wanted. Basically I was f'd because i couldn't take it back home and let it sit in my driveway until the following weekend. So, I again tried to remain calm and told the manager he was in charge, I wasn't there and he is the boss. Whatever it is it is. Well-that cost me $300 for a $10 bolt and what should have been 15-20 minutes labor by the ASE certified mechanic. The moral to this story-don't do this job on a Sunday, consider ordering a replacement banjo bolt if you have the 2006 or previous that has the bolt rather than a fuel hose clamp, and most importantly, tape the banjo bolt on somehow to your 8mm double square. Lesson learned.
 
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