ok... am i screwed? [broken balance shaft belt]

[bushy]

My car was making an annoying vibrating noise at 4k rpm while standing still, so I decided to try and find out what the problem was.

I pulled off the timing belt cover and found this..

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I guess I got lucky that it didnt get caught between the cam gears.

Can I drive my car around without the balancer shaft belt if I can put up with the vibration?

 

[jepherz]

Balancer shaft? You should make sure you still have a runnable motor.... More than likely, with a belt like that you have bent valves. Did you look at the rest of the belt? Do you have any more pictures?

 

[wolf20043]

My car was making an annoying vibrating noise at 4k rpm while standing still, so I decided to try and find out what the problem was.

I pulled off the timing belt cover and found this..

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I guess I got lucky that it didnt get caught between the cam gears.

Can I drive my car around without the balancer shaft belt if I can put up with the vibration?

I wouldnt drive it. I would actually take this opprotunity to eliminate the balance shafts. There is a free mod thread in the tech articles to show you how to do it at very little cost.
Mike

 

[bushy]

I guess I got super lucky, I just bought this car and drove it home and it still ran like a bat out of hell. So yes the engine actually does run.

 

[jepherz]

is that chunk missing from the belt thats on there? (I'm guessing it is) If so, you're super lucky. Don't even run the car till you get that fixed. Well, unless you want to replace the whole head...

 

[Julia]

Balancer shaft? You should make sure you still have a runnable motor.... More than likely, with a belt like that you have bent valves. Did you look at the rest of the belt? Do you have any more pictures?

That is exactly what I was going to say. I would be more worried about bent valves than some rattling from the balance shaft. Either way I would not suggest driving it and I agree with Mike too here is a good link for the balance shaft removal and good luck
Julia http://dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=192995

 

[wolf20043]

That is exactly what I was going to say. I would be more worried about bent valves than some rattling from the balance shaft. Either way I would not suggest driving it and I agree with Mike too here is a good link for the balance shaft removal and good luck
Julia http://dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=192995

Sorry I was being lazy. But that is why we have secrataries
Mike

 

[bushy]

Do I have to pull the engine to do the free shaft removal?

 

[robs90tsi]

youre lucky that didnt completely knock your timing belt off, very lucky, ive seen the balance shaft belt take out the timing belt when it went almost every time. I wouldnt drive it, id check the timing first, and prey you didnt bend any valves

 

[Quasimondo]

That appears to be the balance shaft belt, and the timing belt appears to be intact. You might as well replace the timing belt as well while you're down there. If the BS belt gave up the ghost, the TB can't be too far behind.

Generally, I don't advise pulling the balance shafts unless you're rebuilding the engine due to the difficulty of getting the rear balance shaft out while the engine is still in the car. The only way I've seen those shafts removed with the engine still in the car was to disassemble the oil pump and then cut the shaft in pieces so it can come out easier. There might be other ways, but if you're not experienced in tooling around in your engine you could easily find yourself stuck in a project that will leave you without a car for a bit more than a day or two.

My advice: Replace the balance shaft belt and timing belt and continue with your scheduled maintenance.

 

[wolf20043]

The way I got the rear shaft out with the motor in was:
a) Jack the motor just slightly with a jack and a piece of wood.
b) Pull the bolt from the front motor mount and lower the cross member.
c) pull the drivers side motor mount.
d) lower the motor until you can see the whole front case.
e) pull the timing belt, front cover bolts (shown in the tutorial), crank gear, and everythig should slide right out. It is a lot of work, and not for the under average mechanic, but can be done.
Mike
BTW, Quasi is correct on saying it is easier to do the eliminator with the motor out and apart. Some of those block off bearings are a PITA to get in with the motor in there

 

[bushy]

Is it possible to just replace the belts and be done with it?

Would I still have the drop one side of the motor do to this?

 

[wolf20043]

Yes it is. As Quasi said, You can check for play in the balance shaft, and if it is good, just throw the other belts on, time it and you are all set. But the timing will have to come off, and the steps I put above will allow you to lift and lower the motor to make it easy to get everything.
Mike

 

[Quasimondo]

Is it possible to just replace the belts and be done with it?

Would I still have the drop one side of the motor do to this?

The timing belt would have to be removed in order to replace the balance shaft belt. The only mount that would need to be removed is the driver's side mount. A floor jack would be a needed too. Place a piece of wood on the jack and slide it under the oil pan. Use the jack to raise and lower the engine as necessary to get at the nuts/bolts/brackets.

http://www.vfaq.com/FAQlocator-engine.html
Scroll down to "Timing Belt" for all of the instructions to replace the timing and balance shaft belts.

 

[bushy]

Thanks for all your help guys, I really appreciate it

Just one last question though. Should I replace the balancer tensioner and timing belt tensioner?

 

[Black94DSM]

Yes replace the Tensioner, the tensioner pully, the t-belt, the balance shaft belt(if you plan on keeping them in) water pump, and check your oil pump for play in the gears, if bad replace that too.

Good luck, you got lucky as hell.

 

[airmail96]

Yea, I had a friend whos balance shaft belt snapped and slung into the oil pump causing it to cease up, put a nice little hole in his block.

 

[MadTripper]

I am having the front end of my TSI put back together and I figured since it has 118K on the motor, I had better replace the timing belt and so on. Ironically enough, when we pulled the cover off, the BS belt was shredded and laying in the bottom of the case. We have since replaced everything including my cracked timing belt cover and it is running fine. I purchased the whole kit from diamondmotorsport and the waterpump. This included all pulley's, the hydaulic tensioner, and both internal belts as well as three external belts. With the pump, it was about 400.00. Well worth the piece of mind.

Tripper

 

[barfoot1]

I am having the front end of my TSI put back together and I figured since it has 118K on the motor, I had better replace the timing belt and so on. Ironically enough, when we pulled the cover off, the BS belt was shredded and laying in the bottom of the case. We have since replaced everything including my cracked timing belt cover and it is running fine. I purchased the whole kit from diamondmotorsport and the waterpump. This included all pulley's, the hydaulic tensioner, and both internal belts as well as three external belts. With the pump, it was about 400.00. Well worth the piece of mind.

Tripper

You were very lucky! On my dad's car, the ballance shaft belt shreded and broke the crank sensor (luckly, none of the shreds got caught in the tbelt).

 

[bushy]

Isnt the crank sensor up by the valve cover on the other side?

 

[jott5555]

in all honesty that looks like part of the t-belt.. mine split and looked exactally like that.. and it would still run because half the teeth were still on there.. on a 91 tsi yes its up by the battery on the cam..

good luck son now get in there and make us proud!

 

[CanadianTSi]

Isnt the crank sensor up by the valve cover on the other side?

Your thinking of the CAM sensor, the crank sensor is down by the Crank pulley

While doing my Tbelt Job this weekend we found that my Bshaft belt was on it's last leg, all cracked and nasty looking. Looks like I got lucky