[srponies]

I am working on an '00 Beetle 1.8 for a friend. She was driving and the motor mount bolts broke. Engine dropped and she stopped the car. Had it towed to my place.

I replaced the mount and bolts, the oil pan, and repaired the exhaust flexpipe.

Started it today. When it runs (neutral) and is brought to 3000rpm, the timing area is very noisy. I removed the upper cover and found that at 3k rpm, the timing belt resonates, appears to have slack between the cam pulley and water pump. It looks like the belt moves up and down 1/4" over that 6" span.

Is this an indication that the tensioner is bad or just out of adjustment. I haven't pulled the lower cover or anything else. Just got it started today.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Steve

 

[VDubYah]

The 1.8 has a hydrolic tensioner. there is no adjustment possible. You are going to have to pull the 3 covers to try and get a look at whats happening.

 

[jfoj]

Quick test, pull the serpentine belt and perform the same test and see if the noise is any different/better.

The noise may actually be a bad alternator pulley? The serpentine belt tensioner should be rock solid and the serpentine belt tensioner pulley should not rattle.

Blauparts or ECS tuning has good pricing on timing belt kits.

Too bad you did not replace the timing belt and water pump while you had the motor mount out! This is hardest part of the job!

This is an interference motor, if the timing belt breaks or jumps, time to pull the head, replace valve and install a new timing belt and tensioner anyway!

 

[srponies]

I was hoping that I wasnt going to need to remove the engine bracket or new bolts that I just put on. The timing belt was supposedly done about 20k miles ago by previous owner. Looking at water pump (with top timing cover off) it appears new.

The noise is definitely from the timing belt area... as it occurs at the same time that the timing belt seems to move up/down. This is right at 3k, almost exact.

I also really don;t know if the motor did this before the mount bolts broke.
Bummer because I've had this car a few weeks now. I thought I was done with it.
Steve

 

[Zapper]

Had something similar happen on my son's GTI. Motor mount broke and timing belt and pulleys were rubbing on motor mount. Had to change pulleys and belt. Motor mount bolts are supposed to be single use.