Audi "used" to say 105k for all thier models, after thousands of snapped timing belts and eating cylinder head repairs its now recommended at ALL dealerships at 80k. Thats for all models with a belt, now were following BMW's example and using chains thank god.

I've probably done 100+ cylinder head changes/valve repairs on various audis in my career of 5 years at audi, thats a lot in a short time. Most of those were in the 90k range. I recommend waiting no longer than 85k.

 

How challenging is a timing belt to change on those? You probably need specialized tools I'm assuming. Could any experienced mechanic do this or should it go to Audi dealer?

 

Yes, you need specialized tools to do the belt. I would ONLY go to an independent if they routinely work on German cars and have all the tools AND access to the service information. Otherwise use the dealer. Yeah, as an Audi tech I'm biased to the dealer but it's also because I've seen way too many times the results of improper procedures and repairs on Audi's. I'm not saying the person that did it was a bad tech, he just didn't know. Things like timing belts have a specific procedure and all the steps need to be done in the correct order as far as timing the cams and tensioning the belt. If done wrong, you could have a check engine light with cam timing faults at the least and bent valves at the worst.

Side note: At my dealership, used A8's sell really well for some reason.

 

I don't doubt you, because you were there...but seriously..."snapped"? As you know, I'm not a tech, so just worked on 10-12 of my own cars and a few friends. I've never seen a snapped one...not even a photo. The one I pulled off my A8 at 100K is still hangin on my wall and I wouldn't think twice before towing a car with it. What snaps em?
Like I said, if you say so, I believe it must happen...but now I want to find somewhere to pull my old one apart with a scale that'll tell me how much it took. They've always appeared bullet proof to me and never worried about breakage...esp (and I know they're larger) now that they use the same design for some big motorcycle wheel drive, in place of chains or shafts.
I'll let ya know how that goes if I ever get around to it

 

Yup, snapped. The cars would come in with a crank no start concern, but the customers complained of a "weird" sound when cranking.....We would go out and crank them and of course it sounded like it had 0 compression, i wonder how that could happen
The odd thing was you would pop the upper timing cover the the belt would usually look like it was around the cam/s and looked tight, however when someone cranked the engine nothing moved but the starter LOL.

The engines that snapped them the most were the 1.8T, 2.7T, and the 3.0L does it the most. The 4.2L is probably the rarest of the bunch, but i've still seen it happen.

So again, if anyone wants to push their A8 to the 100k mark and beyond with the original belt, don't say i didn't warn ya.