Just talked to the audi dealer.

He said it's 950 bucks to do the timing belt kit and water pump. that was a like a kick to the nuts dang.

I told him i'm at 80K how much risk am i taking. He said he's worked on hundreds of TT's he said you'll be fine till 90K unless your in the moutians where the air in thin. then it's 75K because the thin air drys out the belts much quicker.

How many of you have done belts your self? how hard is it?

 

I don't buy the thin air drying out the belt. The belt isn't the issue in most timing belt failures. I think the tensioners fail and cause the belt to break. I replaced mine a few months ago at 53,000 miles. I live at 6,300 feet and the belt was fine, but one of the tensioners had lost some of its spring loosing the belt a little bit causing it to vibrate. I heard a vibrating noise coming from the area of the timing belt at idol. I posted a write up about a month ago describing how to replace a timing belt yourself. There are some very good write ups on the audiworld forums also. It isn't a very hard procedure if you are fairly mechanically inclined. If not, I would take it to someone who is. $950 doesn't sound like too bad of a price. Parts costed me about $250 and it took about 8 hours to complete the job. I would definitly replace the timing belt, water pump and tensioners sooner rather than later.

 

950 is a good price from the dealer, I was quoted a few hundred more. I ended up buying a T-belt kit and doing it myself. It took me 6-7 hours. I had done timing belts on other motors before, but never an audi. It wasn't that bad at all. Search for a write up and see if that's something you feel comfortable doing. The hardest part by far was getting the new belt on, that took me 1.5 hrs alone (by myself). Also, if you can find one, get a silver sharpie to mark your timing marks on the belt, they work great for this sort of thing.

One more thing, replace the motor mount bolts, I broke one and it was a complete pain in the butt to replace and they only cost a few dollars. And I was using a torque wrench, so I know I didn't over-torque it.

 

I agree better safe then sorry.
question.

Where can i get a good shop manual online for the audi?

Also is the water pump powered by the timing belt?
Thats how my Eclipse is.

 

ya its powered by the timing belt. i still my the ecs kit for sale

 

Cars in the shop today for time belt kit water pump and thermostat.
all costing me 750 bucks with parts. Got a killer deal because he mis quoted me but said he'll stand behind his quote.

 

Which side is the timing belt on?
drivers side?

 

Don't believe him about the belt being fine until 90,000 miles. Two months ago when I asked my local dealer about changing the timing belt, he said the same thing, two weeks ago it broke while I was driving 50 mph.

Towed it to Audi and was told it needed approx $6000 work (CDN). I got on the internet, found all kind of articles about Audi losing class action lawsuits for timing belts, oil sludge, etc... I called Audi Customer Care and opened a file with them. I told them that I'd have been more than willing to change the belt when I asked as my car was at 120,000+ kms (~75,000 miles) but was told by the dealer it didn't need changing.

A few days later, my dealer called and said if I paid for the timing belt replacement (belt, rollers, labour, etc...), Audi would pick up the rest (new cylinder head, etc..) which was about 75% of the bill.

Long story short, don't wait to go through the same hassle, get it changed, you are already past the mileage where mine broke.

Good luck to you.

 

Its been said before, its not the belt that fails, the belt IS good for 100K or so, the tensioner on the otherhand, is not. Often the root cause of TB failure.

 

I had read that as well (about the tensioner), I mentioned it to my dealer but he said the tensioner was fine, the belt had lost teeth and broken according to him.

I also heard that they've since changed the owner's manual to lower the recommended replacement interval? My TT is a 2000 and the manual says to replace the belt at 180,000 km (~ 112,000 miles).