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A quick D.I.Y. Cam Chain and Tensioner *BPY engines

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#1 · (Edited)
(PICTURES UPDATED) A quick D.I.Y. Cam Chain and Tensioner *BPY engines

A quick D.I.Y. Cam Chain and Tensioner *BPY engines
This in not the most in depth write up ever but it will help many of you out to see what you are getting into (It's not that hard) just looks it.

I do want to start by saying I am not responsible in anyway for your actions and anything that may happen as a result of you doing this on your own.

The tools you will need are the following:

T40080 - 6 point socket
T10252 - Cam Lock
T10020 - 2 pin cam wrench (optional)
Ratchets - 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2"
1/2" Breaker Bar
Extensions for all three. 3" for the 1/4" and 6" extractions for the 3/8" and 1/2"
T27 Socket and Screw Driver Bit
10mm Socket
5/8 Spark Plug Socket (optional)
15mm Wrench
M8 Triple square (If you have the banjo style fuel pump)
Pick sets
Screw Drivers, both Standard and Philips head
Safety Glasses would be a good idea too.
Might need a few other little things but this is most of them

Parts you will need: - cost for parts was about $178 plus $100 for the tool kit I bought. The gaskets where all VW brand. The chain was IWIS (same as factory) as pictured and the Tensioner was from INA (same as factory) as pictured. The prices are cheaper from the companies separate compared to buying them straight from VW.
Timing cover gasket - $9
Valve cover gasket - $17
Exhaust cam adjuster bolt - $4
Timing chain - $31
timing chain tensioner - $59
HPFP cam follower (optional) - crazy if you don't while you already have it apart. - $50 with new bolts and gasket
Hose clamp - to replace factory clamp on the rear pcv hose from valve cover $1
Timing tools if you don't already have them - $100




Step One - Make sure the car is in Neutral so the engine can rotate freely. Remove your intake system (whatever brand you may have) This should be pretty simple. Not going to explain because so many mount differently. Make sure to cover the turbo inlet so you don't drop anything down in it. Paint can lid works pretty well.


Step Two - Remove the battery and battery tray. (Optional) I did this this to make more room to work and I am glad I did, You will want the room to gain access and see the lower bolts on the cam cover and to wiggle the cover off.


Step Three - Now it is time to start disconnecting all the plugs on the top end such as fuel pump connectors, Coil Packs, and N205 Valve. You will want to pull the coil packs out at this time. Also disconnect the vacuum line off the cam cover. If you have an aftermarket heat shield, this will also be a good time to take it out. You will want to disconnect the rear two hoses on the valve cover and all the hoses off the front PCV system.





Step Four - Time to remove the fuel pump and follower. Now is also a good time to replace it since you already have to remove the old one. This is pretty simple but make sure you have rags on hand as fuel will come out when you drain the system. You will want to unscrew the cap on the bottom right of the pump and push in the tap to release the fuel pressure. This will drain fuel out so have a rag under it. After it is drained, remove the fitting from the pump to gain access to the bolt behind it. You will want to also remove the two fuel lines under the pump as well, I have the 15mm line and the Banjo bolt which is not as bad as everyone says. Put the tripple square in a socket with a 3" extension on a 1/4 drive ratchet and it comes out in less then two minute. Below is a pic showing how to do it. After they are disconnected, You can now take off the 3 bolts holding the fuel pump on and remove it.





Step Five - Now it is time to remove the Valve cover and Cam Chain cover. You will need lots of rags and the cam cover will leak on the top of the trans. All the bolts here will be T27s. The valve cover is real simple. It's 14 bolts up top and 2 on the left side where the timing belt is. The just wiggle it side to side and it should come right off. You might need to pry at it, If you do, Just be very careful not to crack or break anything. The chain cover it a little bit of a pain to get the lower bolts and this is where you will be glad you removed the battery. There are 3 up top, 2 around the back, 1 under the fuel pump are, and 1 last little sucker under in the center, You will not be able to get it with a T27 socket, You have to have the bit and screwdriver for this guy. He was tucked up in so I couldn't get a good picture. You will also need to remove the 2 bolts shown in the second pic as well as removing the wire loom holder. The third pic is to show the bottom bolt location and how it is surrounded by the case. After all the bolts are removed from the housing you can now take it off, To do this, IT MUST COME STRAIGHT OUT THE SIDE, you might have to bend some of the medal lines slightly to do so but you don't want to break the rings in the housing by bending it around. Just be gentle and careful when doing this and you will be fine.




Step Six - At this point, the tricky stuff is done. The rest is easy. Now we need to rotate the engine to get the cams lined up to lock them in place. It is (optional) if you want to remove the spark plugs to make this a little easier, I did to release the compression as I rotated the engine. Here is where the 2 pin cam wrench come in, You will want to slip it in the intake cam and rotate the engine around the the notch on each cam face each other, once they do, slide the locking plate in and bolt it in to 7 ft lbs. You can now press the tensioner down and insert the locking pin to hold it down.



Step Seven - Time to remove the camshaft adjuster bolt and take the chain off. To do this, You need a the T40080 socket and a breaker bar. I had my brother hold the socket square and in while I pulled to break it loose. Don't be afraid to give it some force, they are designed to hold in there tight. Once it is out, You can then just slide the adjuster and chain right off.




Step Eight - We can now remove the old tensioner, It is held on by 3 T27 bolts and comes right out. After it is out, Clean up the oil passage hole, mine had some build up in the screen on the tensioner. It would explain why it was ticking.






The rest is just a matter of reverse bolting everything back up the way it came out.



Torque specs are the following All are ft lbs.

Cam adjuster bolt is 15 lbs plus additional 1/8 turn
Tensioner bolt is 7 lbs
Valve cover bolts are 7 lbs.
Cam chain case cover is 7 lbs
hpfp bolts are 7lbs
banjo bolt on fuel pump is 13 lbs
union nut on hpfp is 18 lbs

On a scale of 1-10 on how hard, I would rate a 6. It's not hard so much as how long it takes. You really do need the special tools to get the job done though. If not, You are going to break something.

Here is the Valve cover pattern to tighten down to 7ft Lbs.



If you need any help, feel I left anything out, or any question, feel free to message me and I will see what I can do to help, add, fix, or change.
 
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#21 ·
BPY timing issue

Hey guys
i need to jump in here and hopefully someone can help me. I have a 2006 BPY FSI DSG, bought it as a basket case from the previous owner thinking I would have to do a motor in it. Long story short the PO ran the cam follower into the cam and trashed the cam. Dealer didnt want to warranty it and he went after VW and they just paid off his loan on it. The dealer purchased some used cams and all associated parts in order to get it running. They guy threw it together and could not get the "timing right." So i redid the timing belt and installed a new water pump. I also found a collapsed roller rocker (was sideways?) I was able to loosen the cam girdle and get it straitened out, so no issues there. The car ran but was hard to start and had NO POWER off the line. Once it got going it seems to drive ok...deff under-powered. I knew the cam chain tensioner was bad due to the noise. So i removed the cam chain cover and found the damn tensioner was not even bolted to the head!! Guy was a total hack. Lucky for me no real damage was done, so I bolted the tensioner back onto the head and the noise went away. Car still has no power and engine seems to shake at idle. NO CODES present at this time. When the roller was collapsed I did get a "low boost" code or achieved boost not achieved.

I purchased the cam lock tool, cam thingy hex tool and a new tensioner/chain. I CANNOT get the cams to line up in order to insert the cam lock. I am going to guess that this is why the car has no power...its out if time?! Now since I cannot lock the cams to remove the chain, what do I need to do in order to get this thing timed right? I am in over my head a little, but with the right guidance I think I can save this motor.
Can someone give me detailed instruction on how to proceed. I have all the tools but dont want to rip stuff apart if I dont need to.
THANKS!!!
 
#22 ·
Hey guys
i need to jump in here and hopefully someone can help me. I have a 2006 BPY FSI DSG, bought it as a basket case from the previous owner thinking I would have to do a motor in it. Long story short the PO ran the cam follower into the cam and trashed the cam. Dealer didnt want to warranty it and he went after VW and they just paid off his loan on it. The dealer purchased some used cams and all associated parts in order to get it running. They guy threw it together and could not get the "timing right." So i redid the timing belt and installed a new water pump. I also found a collapsed roller rocker (was sideways?) I was able to loosen the cam girdle and get it straitened out, so no issues there. The car ran but was hard to start and had NO POWER off the line. Once it got going it seems to drive ok...deff under-powered. I knew the cam chain tensioner was bad due to the noise. So i removed the cam chain cover and found the damn tensioner was not even bolted to the head!! Guy was a total hack. Lucky for me no real damage was done, so I bolted the tensioner back onto the head and the noise went away. Car still has no power and engine seems to shake at idle. NO CODES present at this time. When the roller was collapsed I did get a "low boost" code or achieved boost not achieved.

I purchased the cam lock tool, cam thingy hex tool and a new tensioner/chain. I CANNOT get the cams to line up in order to insert the cam lock. I am going to guess that this is why the car has no power...its out if time?! Now since I cannot lock the cams to remove the chain, what do I need to do in order to get this thing timed right? I am in over my head a little, but with the right guidance I think I can save this motor.
Can someone give me detailed instruction on how to proceed. I have all the tools but dont want to rip stuff apart if I dont need to.
THANKS!!!
I'm just getting ready to do this for my first time so my suggestion is based on my understanding after a fair amount of reading...

I would suspect that the cam adjuster is not torqued as aggressively as an original since it has already been apart. Have you tried removing the cam adjuster with a #10 polyDrive? It would seem you need to get this disassembled some how. You might need to customize a cam lock tool, grind it down on the side for the intake so you can lock just the exhaust cam and get that adjuster off the end and get things lined up correctly.
 
#28 ·
wondering whether the adjuster bolt was loosen in anti clockwise direction ? or clockwise? mine is really tight and couldn't remove at all. any suggestions?
I might be too late to help you on this but maybe it'll help someone else... The cam adjuster bolt loosens in a counter clockwise direction. That is, if you are standing in front of the car you pull your breaker bar (yes you'll want a breaker bar for this) down/towards you to crack the bolt loose. It is on extremely tight and the longer you've driven your vehicle the tighter it will be. It helps to have someone else putting pressure on the end of your breaker bar with the special polydrive and making sure it is perfectly snug on the bolt. Even with someone helping to do that I had the misfortune of shredding the teeth off my cam adjuster bolt and we had to go get EZ outs at Sears and drill into the cam adjuster bolt and reverse it out which took a good extra hour. If this happens to you be careful you don't drill all the way through the bolt with an EZ out or you'll drill into the cam itself which is obviously not good.
 
#62 · (Edited)
So couple things. The top quality Assenmacher cam locking tool did end up bending on me after the second job I did this month.
But I found you can take the exhaust cam out completely. Of course take timing belt side all apart plus and remove the upper cam cover. Then you can install everything again carefully. Put Tensioner in First, compressed and locked down. . Then set Cams in carefully with again wrapped around. I originally marked the chain first. Pics below attached. And I believe it is 19 teeth! From intake cam notch to exhaust back side notch. 19 teeth or half links across the top.
Pretty tricky but I got it all back together today.
Another thing. You carefully Put the cam in a vise to get that cam gear bolt loose with the ribe tool.

 
#353 ·
And I believe it is 19 teeth! From intake cam notch to exhaust back side notch. 19 teeth or half links across the top.
I've attempted this job before reading this. I'm not using a cam locking tool, since I see numerous posts saying that it does not work. What I'm missing out on is the count.
Are you saying that it is 19 half links BETWEEN the two manufactured notches on each cam sprocket? I keep losing count as I didn't properly mark the exhaust cam notch mark. My timing belt broke, hence I had both cams removed (hence the avoidance of the cam locking tool).
 
#394 ·
Question(in bold below):
Since some info regarding chain stretch was released by DAP on his TSI Chain Stretch video, I have been thinking does the same may apply to the EA113 FSI engine. But I have not found any confirmation of this. In his video he states VW/Audi techs have told him there's normally no chain and tensioner issues up to 3°kW. I have asked in the video's comments section and there's no response. He says, in the video, some may notice noise or issues at 4°kW. At 5°kW the chain and tensioner should be addressed. My EA113 has 2°kW at 156k miles.

As I said,, I have been replying to those questioning using VCDS to check chain stretch on the EA113 FSI; All I know of is from what I heard regarding the TSI...and I haven't yet found any references for ours. So the question is; has anyone heard any factual specifications for chain stretch on the EA113? I recall me hovering over Group/MB 093(IIRC) Phase Position Intake to see if a pop-up appears to include the spec range....but I don't remember anything popping up.
 
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#5 ·
I ran for almost a year before replacing my noisy cam chain and tensioner. But mine only made noise on startup and not every time. Mostly during cold winter mornings.
If you do this yourself I recommend being prepared to drill out the cam bolt like this guy. Despite having the proper poly-drive bit and being carfull I also stripped mine.
 
#7 ·
Very nice write up. I drove mine for at least a year with it making the sound when at operating temp before I properly diagnosed it.

You def need the timing tools and poly drive. I was Lucky enough to not have to drilll out that bolt.

Search for specialty tool program to pick up the tools.
 
#8 ·
Thank you for the great write up. I just got my 06 Passat and had the noise. Just replaced this on Saturday & used your info. Only difference I found was that all the bolts were a T30 not a T27 on my vehicle. New chain & Tensioner & my car does not sound like a diesel any longer!!
 
#10 ·
Great DIY; I just printed the whole thing. My '08 has been occasionally makes noise on cold start. Stops within a few seconds. Right now, I'm prepared to gamble on getting through to warmer weather in the spring before I do this.

Thanks for a really, really thorough, exceptionally well photo documented DIY. Great job.
 
#13 ·
Hey whats up guys this is my first post and i just registered with this site.

Well im in the middle of this timing chain replacement for the first time on the fsi. Fyi this is not my first timing belt/chain replacement i actually have 18 years of automotive and diesel work experience.

So here goes, the exhaust cam on the chain side has 1 visible timing mark [dash] on the outer edge next to the teeth and on the same exhaust cam u have the key way near the base that i have read that some have used as a timing mark is this accurate? Also on the intake cam on the chain side, I only see a dot on the outer edge so im assuming i will use this dot for the timing. Also i have read that you can count 16 rollers on the chain between these markings to confirm the timing but which markings are they referring to?

I just need someone to show me how these timing marks on the chain side correlate with the timing belt, timing marks since it is obvious to see where the timing marks are on the belt side.

Sorry if i confused some of you guys. Just hope this makes sense to somebody.
 
#398 ·
Hey whats up guys this is my first post and i just registered with this site.

Well im in the middle of this timing chain replacement for the first time on the fsi. Fyi this is not my first timing belt/chain replacement i actually have 18 years of automotive and diesel work experience.

So here goes, the exhaust cam on the chain side has 1 visible timing mark [dash] on the outer edge next to the teeth and on the same exhaust cam u have the key way near the base that i have read that some have used as a timing mark is this accurate? Also on the intake cam on the chain side, I only see a dot on the outer edge so im assuming i will use this dot for the timing. Also i have read that you can count 16 rollers on the chain between these markings to confirm the timing but which markings are they referring to?

I just need someone to show me how these timing marks on the chain side correlate with the timing belt, timing marks since it is obvious to see where the timing marks are on the belt side.

Sorry if i confused some of you guys. Just hope this makes sense to somebody.
It's supposed to be 19 rollers between timing marks...

However,
I recently lost timing on my a4 and bend most of my valves.
I rebuilt my Head, re-installed my cams, chain (like everyone suggested), and timing marks are perfect for the belt.
Motor runs now but rough as hell , multiple cylinder misfires.

Didn't have time to check compression before doing all this work and will be doing so soon.
Does anyone think that compression issues would cause multiple cylinder misfires?

I can't think of the next steps , I've also cleaned off my spark plugs but doing the same still.
Putting in new ones this week when they get delivered.

Let me know if you found anything different about the timing. I'd hate to pull the chain off again if I don't have to.
 
#17 ·
Any word on what mileage to change this at? I dont see this in the factory maintenance schedule.
 
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