well if you were in the boulder area i would be happy to help you out, i did that whole job on my first oudi that i bought wrecked iwht front end dammage, but damn man, really sorry to hear bout that.

 

Dont think he can charge you for his incompetence. You set it at a $100 and if you have witnesses, you should be good. If not, i dont think he can charge you over a resonable rate. Meaning charging you 60hrs for a 8hr job

 

doing some research, and am strongly considering fixing it myself. In theory, it really doesn't seem that hard especially if he's already taken off all of the major components, all i have to do is reinstall correctly using bolts supplied from the dealer(since i have no idea what goes where at this point). Thoughts?

 

by a heyens manual for the car, and with the right tools it shoudl be a cake walk, but don't give up on the fight against the mechanic, cuz thats bs

 

It will probably take you atleast 3-5 hours of time in total finding the right bolts and going to find/buy a replacement for the ones you cant find

 

Is there any of you that can help me compile a list of the bolts/nuts required? I don't care about little clips and such that i can easily figure out, just the critical ones that absolutely have to be correct. Thanks,

 

www.vagcat.com Go there and register. Its free and will give you names and part numbers. It isnt always the best, but it sure will help

 

I would suggest not buying a Haynes (I'm guessing that's what you meant) manual. Get a Bentley or something similar. It will have accurate instructions and pictures rather than generalized stuff that you won't understand. Depending on how much was taken off the car it should be pretty easy to put it back together as long as you have a manual or something to tell you how. It's much easier if you were the one that took it apart. I did my timing belt myself and while it was very time consuming it was pretty simple.

And yes, with a Quattro car you have to flat-bed it. Either all wheels need to be spinning at the same speed or none of them.

 

You can do it!! - might need to take some time - ordering parts ect. but you can definatly get-r-done.

Order everything from ECStuning.com - get there "ultimate timing belt kit" and you should be able to pick up a new fan there too. just take your time and make sure you do everything the right way.

 

Is it weird that I almost don't feel that bad for you? I mean taking your car to some guy that ended up getting in over his head somehow. Getting a $1200 job done for like $350? I mean if so many guys on here can do it and this 'mechanic' can't figure it out, there is something wrong. Trust me, I have met mechanics like that, who do this stuff for a living, but know less about the car than I do (when trying to find a new mechanic I try to drum up some car talk so I can quiz them in general conversation to make sure they know their stuff . . . no seriously, I do). And I get the whole mutual respect thing, but this dude doesn't know his Audis if he is signing up to do that long of a job for $100. I don't care if he does know you, he is thinking its like a Honda Civic timing belt job, not the lengthy process it takes to do the Audi's.

Now it seriously sucks that he isn't getting your car back together for you and doesn't have your water pump. Thats not right. Sure the car does look like a mess, but its supposed to. You need to disassemble a lot of stuff to get in there and change the belt. Don't be put off by it, you can get in there and fix it yourself. BTW, why didn't you have one of the guys from your dealership work on it? I would assume you would have a good rapor with them and could have had one of them do you a favor.

So sorry about your situation man. Lesson learned the hard way to pass on the "DEAL" and put your car in the hands of a seriously good mechanic when you need stuff done (especially big jobs). There are a lot of shops that don't work on Audis for a reason. It really isn't that difficult, but it ain't no Civic either. Even though you think you are getting ripped off sometimes, a good, knowledgable mechanic's prices are sometimes more than worth it when compared to the problems you face taking your car to an ametuer or a guy who makes a living changing spark plugs and changing oil all day.

Good luck