Looking at buying an 03 A6 Avant. Test drove a few cars including A4, Volvo Wagon, BMW, and a Merc.E class. Wife liked the A6 the best so that's that.

My question is, as I keep reading about expensive problems and general maintenance issues (i.e Timing belts for $1500!) I am wondering why no one is doing these repairs themselves. Are they that complicated and/or hard to find parts for? I know its apples and oranges, but for $1500 I could replace the entire engine in my Discovery.

Anyone do their own service and care to chime in?

BTW, looking at an 03 in very good conditionw/ 52k milesfor $16. No special options except for a 'sport package' with 17" wheels. Thoughts?

 

Where did you get the $1500.00 from? That is extremely high. I have seen them done in the range of $8-900.00. I am sure other folks will chime in!

OOOO

 

Just from what I have read on this site.. $900-$1500 seemed to be what people were saying. Even $8-900 seems extremely high for a timing belt. But then again, I'm sure these are dealer prices.

 

The prices are high because you have to pull the front of the car off, plus the timing belt kits (which includes belt, water pump and pulleys) are about $500-600. It's pretty labor intensive, although there are some that do it themselves.

 

There are some pretty knowledgable guys here. I am sure they can shed some additional light on the subject!

OOOO

 

OK, now that makes more sense. Can anyone recommend a good service/shop manual? It sounds like I am going to be needing one!

Also, am I in the right price range on that 03? I really hate it when I spend more $$ than necessary.

 

The Bentley manual is pretty much it, and the price sounds pretty good, although if you have access to an Audi dealer, you might try to find a CPO car since it comes with warranty and they get checked over by Audi techs...just for piece of mind.

 

My shop is charging me less than 700$ total for the 75k service which includes TB and WP: 400 for labor and 255 for the ECS kit which includes Timing belt, Idler roller, Tensioner Roller, Water Pump, Thermostat Accessory drive belt.
Not bad, it takes a while.

 

I just did the timing belt on my 2.7T two months ago at 96k. (I should say, my local indie shop did it.) I bought the kit from Blauparts for under $400 with everything and I was charged for 6 hours labor. So my tab was around $800. I would suspect a dealer would nick you for over $600 in parts and $125/hr.

From what I can seen and read, you need to be darn careful to lock the camshafts in place so you don't mess up the timing. It's an interference engine (not sure about the 3.0) and it doesn't take kindly to valves slamming into pistons.

 

Bought my car with 53K miles. My aux coolant pump went out within the first 3 months I had my car. I was a little intimidated by the prospects of removing the intake manifold, so I paid an independant tech $350 to do the job. I realized I needed to be able to work on the car to keep it. Bought the Bentley and keep up with the forums (both here and AudiWorld). There is a bunch of excellent info available on these cars. Since then, I've done everything myself. This includes:

Repairs -
ABS Control Module
Window Guides
Heater Blower
Heater Core
Front O2 Sensors
Flasher Relay
Coolant reservoir
Diverter Valves
Cooling system hose
Cam adjuster seals / Valve Cover Gaskets

I probably saved over $3000 doing the work myself and searching for good deals on parts. All in all, maybe 20 -25 hours on this stuff. It probably would have cost me the same to buy an extended warranty, and then I'd be bragging about how it paid for $5000 in repairs.

Maintenance-
Timing Belt (2X - Didn't replace the tensioner the first time and got to doit again 16 months later)
Brakes - Pads, fluid flush
Plugs
Oil Changes
Air Filters
Fuel Filter

The car is really not as bad to work on as I first thought,