i'm the 2nd owner of my 1997 audi a4 1.8t quattro (5speed)and i have all the maintenance records from the origanal owner. i see she had the timing belt changed at 70k miles and the car now has almost 150k. how can i tell when the timing belt is going to snap? would my engine light come on or would my car ride funny? any ideas?

 

you can look at the belt itself and look for any wear I believe but no light will come on, it won't idle funny (to my knowledge), it just kinda goes and then FUBAR's your engine.

 

You don't know it just breaks and that's the end of your engine.

 

it sounds like your about due, just get it done and save your self the worry and problems

 

how much will it cost? would it be cheaper to get the timing belt kit and have a auto shop put it on or just let them take care of everything?

 

it depends were you go, i bought the whole kit myself at purems.com and then took it to a european shop and had them put it on. they told me they could have got the parts for the same price and then they would warranty it for a certain amount of time. you need to start thinking about replacing it it's not urgent, so you have to time to shop around and find the best deal.

 

on a 1.8 you should learn to do it yourself. I just did mine on my 2.8 which was time consuming but well worth it. The kit and the other parts i replaced while i was in there equaled about 300 bucks. and then my own labor. I called up the stealership just for giggles on how much i saved. They wanted 1300 but it was the stealership.

 

just do it yourself, i did it on my 97 1.8 and i saved about 800 bucks and it took about 8 hours total

just get the right tools!!

 

The belt doesn't brake - the tensioner stops putting tension on the belt causing it to skip teeth which kills your engine.

Yeah DIY
http://www.audiworld.com/tech/eng35.shtml

 

Do a water pump while you're in there. It will save some cash down the road.