2004 A6 2.5 tdi cambelts and water pump

[gje99]

My 146k 04 A6 2.5tdi 163 is coming up for the big cambelt service. A couple of things I could do with advice on:

1. My local garage told me that the job requires a special tool to complete and not all garages carry it (ie. them). Is this true?
2. The car regularly loses about half a cupful of water every 400 miles. I've read water pumps are a weakness of VAG cars. Should I be worried?

thanks

[snapdragon]

1) Yes, they need quite a few special tools. Locking tools and VAGCOM or equivalent to set the injection timing. Have a look on ebay
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=110346097766

This Audi dealer can do them and will have all of the documentation and equipment and the 2 year parts and labour warranty.

[MikkiJayne]

The tools are available on ebay.de for not much money, although if your garage doesn't have them already I would be inclined to find someone who has done this job before - it's not for the uninitiated!

While you're in there definitely change the water pump and thermostat, as they are weak points. Go for the OEM pump too (£70 ish) as the aftermarket ones I've seen are pretty poor quality.

If that listing Snapdragon posted also includes the V6 TDI then I'd jump at the chance because thats a great price from a dealer. I doubt it will include the water pump or the tensioner damper as they aren't part of the 'standard' kit, but do often need changing. Worth a call to find out though.

Let us know how you get on

[shabazmo]

I also recommend that all the belts, rollers and tensioners are replaced, since labour costs are quite high on this job. I had to replace te power steering tensioner between cam belt changes as I did not do it at cam belt change.

Incidently I think the belt change is every 80K miles, so are you doing this early?