Hi
I am a new owner of a 2000 A6 Avaunt Quattro with the 2.8L V6 30 valve engine.

the car has 61K actual miles ! driven by the proverbial LOL <5K per year.

I am trying to go over this car with a fine tooth comb, and recently had a look at the Timing belt.
The belt looks OK I think:
Rubber still pliable
no sign of cracks or dry rot
no apparent wear or fraying
back of belt shows light white marks over each valley in the tooth side of the belt (not sure about this ?)
belt teeth are not Square but are uniformly rounded. is this normal?
My biggest concern is the belt tension, the belt will deflect almost 1 cm under medium finger pressure. Is this normal or excessive play?

I know that normally the timing belt is replaced at 100K miles but should it be replaced early due to the 14 year age?

Blauparts seems to have a good kit for this job GH21112-1B and will rent specialty tools.
Has anyone had experience with using Blauparts kit and tools?
What did you think of the instructions?
Is there another good source for information in this job that I can look at before buying parts?

Is replaceing the timing belt a DIY Job?
I am a mechanical engineer who does all standard mainteneance on my family vehicles. Have done waterpumps, PS pump, radiator, altenator, belts and hoses, brakes, etc I have even rebuilt 2 engines a VW beetle 1600 and a 454 V8 but that was many years ago. I have never done a timing belt, VW was gear timed and the V8 was a chain.

Any feedback appreciated
Brian

 

The timing belt will probably not fail but the tensioner will so, yes, you should do that job. Can't tell the condition of the belt by looking at it. Blau makes a good kit and the tools are essential. When you do the belt do the water pump and t-stat along with the serpentine belt and tensioners. Be careful with bolt torque on this project. No need to do it twice because you broke one off in the block. You need to put the car in service position at the minimum but I disconnected the radiator and swung the whole front end out of the way. If you swing it from driver to passenger, so passenger side is the hinge, you don't have to evacuate the AC system. Just set the whole shebang on a 5 gallon and then get yourself another one to sit on while you do the work. Lots of good instructional videos on youtube. Have fun and good luck

Here is good video that gives you an overview of the process.

 

Low miles for that year. Good catch. Here's DIY TB link.
http://www.audiworld.com/tech/eng.html No harm in changing belt early, but info on it doesn't seems unusual, based on experience with our 2000 2.7T. I think 90K miles is the recommended replacement interval. TB is a DIY project, but some unique tools needed (cam lock bar, crank lock pin). If you rent from BlauP, I hear they have a time interval. We took our time with ours, & bought the tools off ebay (~$50-70). Used numerous times already. You'll need a good selection of metric torques & allen sockets, as Audi uses them a lot. You may also have a need to change oil seals @ valve covers, cam tensioners, & cams, so you'll also need a cam chain tensioner tool (T-shaped tool used to relieve tension on cam chains, ~ $10).
FYI, I'm also a ME.

 

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o man I remember when I saw this video the very first time BEFORE my water pump took a dump it literally scared the bejeezus outta me. But it's a very informative video