2002 Audi A6 Quattro 3.0
85,000 miles

Will greatly appreciate any input regarding the following:

Car went in for a cam sensor - $31 out of pocket after extended warranty coverage – which then turned into catastrophic failure $7,000 est repairs with warranty company denying claim.

Audi says the timing belt broke in their service bay when they started engine to test after repairing the cam sensor. This caused the valves to bend, but apparently just the exhaust valves.

Wynn’s Extended Care warranty will not cover stating the car was misused or abused and that the engine was over rev’d causing the failure. Per Wynn’s all symptoms point to this. Timing belt checked okay – no signs of cracks or dry rot and timing belt is not recommended to be replaced until 105,000 miles - no verifiable problem with belt tensioner, and apparently a key fact is that the exhaust valves are bent and not the intake valves and the “teeth” on the timing belt were stripped.

Audi believes, but apparently cannot prove, that the belt tensioner failed. Presumably if this were the case, the intake valves would also be bent per Wynn’s. Audi says that it is not uncommon for intake values not to bend on an Audi car when this happens.

So, I guess the questions I have are: Is it reasonable that a catastrophic failure as described could occur simply by starting an engine in a service bay with an Audi technician present? Does Audi have any responsibility here as I am at a deadend with Wynn's?

The sequence of events here seem very unusual, although this has been a troublesome car. The above all happened within 30 days of having it to the same dealer for new coil packs, 02 sensor and cat.

Thanks for your time.

 

A nightmare scenario for sure. Probably just get the dealer to write down what happened and get the warranty company to suck it up. I do notice that Alldata's service schedule calls for the belt to be changed at 75,000, but the official Audi requirement should prevail with the warranty. I detect some BS coming from both sides in this, if the belt is good, overrevving would not strip the teeth, the engine should be able to handle it, there is a limiter. If the tensioner was bad, the warranty company is on the hook. It is very easy to check a tensioner so the thing should be pretty simple. If the warranty company balks, get legal help and make it worth your while. Remember, all you have to do to stay within the warranty is to maintain within the requirements, they cannot prove the revving thing. In an interference engine, if the belt strips, any manner of valves can be in the way of the pistons, intake or exhaust.

 

The factory audi recommendation is 105,000 miles, however after several hundred (if not thousands) of cars snapped their timing belts before the 90k mark they changed that to 80k, which is what i recommend ALL audis have thier belts and tensioners changed.
The 3.0L has done this exact thing at my dealer around the 90k mark on several occasions, all you have to do is call AOA (audi of america) to get on the dealer's back and prove that your owner's manual says 105,000k in it and they will force the warranty. Audi of america is really good about that. Worse case scenario is they will 50/50 the repair.

 

Thanks to both of you for the input. To auditech79, please note the the warranty is third party - I did not do through Audi. Will this matter? Thanks