Is there some way to check the timing belt for wear without much hassle?
 

Hello -

Sorry if I'm posting lots of questions recently ( but isn't it what keeps a forum alive? ).

Is there any way to see the timing belt without tearing the whole front end apart like needed when do you change actually change the belt and pump? If there are no cracks, missing teeth and that you can still see a bit of the writings it's still fine right?

99 A6 quattro 2.8

Thanks a lot :)

RE: Is there some way to check the timing belt for wear without much hassle?
 

You can pay less than 200 and have a used car inspection done if you are worried about it, you need oneeventually though, do it as soon as possible is the going concensus.

Oh and the belt itself is not the issue, the belt will look fine and related parts will fail, the belt will come undone and bang around in your e-bay and there goes the engine, or so they say.

RE: Is there some way to check the timing belt for wear without much hassle?
 

I don't think they check that...atleast when I bought the car, the mechanic didn't check it..but it's hidden anyways...and the only way to see it is taking everything apart..

RE: Is there some way to check the timing belt for wear without much hassle?
 

You can't tell by looking at a timing belt that it needs changing, they all look the same unless it's completely worn out. For your '99 the service manual says change TB at 105K miles, If you bought it used and don't know when/if it was changed, I would change it. It's cheaper than replacing the engine.

RE: Is there some way to check the timing belt for wear without much hassle?
 

Yeah well a normal used car check up round here is like $80-$100 (don't remember exact amount) and if you want them to check the TB as well it's $200 or so.

it costs so much more because they will take off the bumper and all that is needed to be removed to properly check it.

But yeah cheaper than a new engine for sure, piece of mind is nice.

RE: Is there some way to check the timing belt for wear without much hassle?
 

You can pry the plastic timing belt cover away from the engine enough to shine a flashlight in there without a frontend teardown.

RE: Is there some way to check the timing belt for wear without much hassle?
 

Checking the belt itself is not gonna tell you if you need to change the related parts which are the ones that actually fail and cause the belt to slip off and destroy the engine while driving.

RE: Is there some way to check the timing belt for wear without much hassle?
 

At 100,000 miles my timinig belt looked fine, you could still see the writing on it. What you could not see on mine was the water pump starting to leak. It was only a matter of a short time that the water pump would have failed causing the belt to probably slip resulting in total and unmitigated destruction of the engine and my bank account.

There was a recent thread were this happened the day before he was to drop off the car for the service.

New service interval is 75,000 miles.