Hi all! Just wanted to share this with you. For past 4 months I started hearing noises coming from the front of the motor. As weeks pass by it was getting louder and louder. Some people that walked by asked me how did I convert the car to diesel (the noise really made my car sound like a diesel), I chuckled and told them I didn't, has some mechanical problems. The source of the noise was a bit hard to find do to that it scatters the sound throughout the car.

With 105k I decided to do the timing belt and see possible cause of the noise. So started tearing the front end off. Took off the timing belt covers and what I saw behind the covers shocked me. I was speechless. I have no idea what happened to the rest of the bearings, haven't found them yet. How did the timing belt not snap, I have no idea. A miracle happened or just amazing engineering. My buddy and I are currently in the process of getting this done but are having ALOT of issues removing the cooling fan. Any advice would be a great help. I have done some research online, apparently there is a "chopstick" tool that can be used. Only problem is I cannot recall which way the fan turns. I know to loosen the bolt is the opposite of which way the fan spins. But cannot remember which way it spins. If you know, please let me know.

Well that's all. After seeing what was the cause and that the car was running fine even with this problem made me a VERY happy Audi driver. I know you guys will probably burn me for even driving the car for so long with this kind of an issue, but in my line of work I really didn't have the time. Normally I would take care of it right away.

 

Sticker under the hood says change toothed belt every 75,000 mi....

Its an interference engine, if your timing belt snaps the valves and pistons can come in contact and do serious damage. Its just not worth it to put that kind of maintance off in my opinion.

Your one lucky dude

 

what!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You waited that long to changed the timing belt!!!!!!???? Wow you lucked out man, you dont even know!!

 

im almost at 106k and im just now doing my timing belt but both me and the original owner baby the car. treat it well and itll return the favor

 

i almost knum-chucked you!!..lol.. yeah.. my wifes t6 volvo started to make a squealing belt noise one day.. i wasnt comfortable with it and looked at the belt just to check.. then i noticed the timing belt was eating through the timing cover, and upon removal noticed a bearing similar to yours, but with no ball bearings in it period.. and volvos bend half of the valves if the belt breaks at idle... consider yourself lucky my friend.. the car gods have looked down on you with approval....

 

The cooling fan is always a pain in the ***. Couple things will help:
A: It is reverse threaded. Dont worry about the way it spins, just treat it as you would anything reverse threaded. So hold the Nut in back (closest to the motor) in place and turn the nut closest to the fan, to the right for loosening.
B: The right tools really make things easy. I used a pipe wrench for one of the nuts and a thin wrench (from my table saw) for the other nut.
C: WD-40 (which im sure you already used)

I would recommend replacing the fan before reassembly. When we finished my brothers car. We started it and one of the fans broke off We had to take the front end off and replace it. They get pretty dry rotted and dont really cost to much so its a good time to replace it.