timing belt
Thanks so much for posting this DIY, it was very thorough and saved me some serious money.
If you're not a pro, and if this is the first time you've changed a timing belt, here's some things to consider, and issues I encountered -
Bring a friend. Offer beer or even cash, but have someone available with a good head on their shoulders, and possibly their own set of tools. It will cut down on time, and they will likely approach problems differently than you, and come up with different solutions.
Get a good headlamp. It was so useful throughout the whole repair.
Find an air-conditioned garage to work in. This repair took me way too long, 8 hours just to get the old belt off and water pump installed, and you need to be somewhat comfortable to deal with stress.
I went to my local Nashville dealership asking to buy the stretch bolts mentioned, and they told me they don't replace any bolts when they change timing belts. So I didn't replace them.
After following the tooth marking section to the tee, my new timing belt, ordered from ECS tuning, fit over the cam shaft and the crankshaft without much elbow grease. I just made sure I marked everything and carefully transferred marks to the new belt.
consider spending some of the money you're saving on the Bentley manual. It helped to look at the illustrations when putting things back together, and having a second resource to check against this DIY.
When draining the coolant to replace the water pump, it took us a while to figure out which hose to disconnect, and even longer to disconnect it. After failing to use the quick release mentioned, we disconnected the same hose at a different point the elbow, using pliers to disengage the metal hose clamp. Disconnecting a large black rubber hose (intake or exhaust) nearby enabled us to fit a pair of pliers in the tight space. Also, coolant went everywhere, there's quite a bit in the radiator/hoses, so be prepared for a mess.
any other thoughts on what it might be thats leaking ?
