Hello everyone, just purchased a 99 audi a4 2.8L. Before I bought it, I was under the impression that these engines are not interference engines because it was a v6 and that the timing belt does not need to be replaced. AFTER I have bought the car, I have looked around and it seems that it may in fact be an interference engine. The car has 120k miles on it... what should I do?

 

Timing service

 

So it is an interference engine? If the belt breaks while driving it will wreck the engine?

 

Yes it is, if the belt breaks the engine is f'd. It's best to do it every 60k I think I did mine at 87k but the tensioners were warn and the belt was streched and cracking, if urs has never been changed ur on borrowed time! The service isn't all that difficult if ur mechanically inclined. The full kit will run u like 350 from ECS tuning

 

Besides service records, is there anyway to know if the belt was recently changed? Can you see the belt from under the hood to see if its warn/cracked?

 

There are removable timing covers to check the belt. In some cases there is a sticker with the milage of the last timing service. If the belt looks warn or cracked at all it's probably a good idea to change it, better safe than "valve salad"

 

Agreed with all of the above but with a caveat - even if the belt appears ok, you still should do it if you have no proof of it being done. Seems that more often it's a tensioner failure that causes the engine to puke up the belt, rather than the belt itself breaking. You won't be able to see the tensioner as it's behind a lower cover that is behind the crank pulley. Almost every timing job we've done here, the belt itself looks perfectly fine more another few tens of thousands of miles. But on my own car, I'm not going to risk it - if there's no proof it was done, do it or take your chances on it holding up. If it does, then so be it. If not, you'll be engine shopping.

 

if you are in doubt, change the belt. You'll be out some money, but its a lot better than guessing wrong and killing the engine for good