As the title says, my timing belt broke, and thus my A4 is now sitting in a parking lot.

Let me explain a little before I get to my question. I bought the car used, with 95k miles (roughly), and right away had to replace the flex pipe, that cost 200 plus. they told me to take it out and make sure it did not fuss around. I drove the car (not hard) about 20 or so miles. I pulled into a McDonalds to get some food, I had to stop because of a drive through line, I went to move and the car shut off. (I am going to say at absolute tops i was at 1500 RPM probably more like 800-1200). So after moving it into a parking spot and trying to start it, I narrowed it down to either the fuel pump or, my biggest fear, timing belt.

Got picked up, got another car, got tools, and went back. I check the plugs first one, has junk on it, and should have been replaced about 40k miles ago. Looking in the cylinder, I see a little metallic specks in there...uh-oh... no oil on it or anything too bad, check the second and 4th same story...(minus the specks) the third one however, had oil on the plug. My friend said that it seemed that only the 3rd cylinder seemed to have been the only one actually "hit".

My question is what would you do? I went back to where I bought the car and they are going to check it out, they were really cool about it. I do not know what my estimate will be but I have seen numbers from $1400-$4000 plus, I was told, where they are taking the car, I will only be charged for labor. But we'll see once I get the estimate... Again, what would you do, sell it as is, go to a junk yard and pull parts from there, just pay to get it done? I am at a loss.

It is an Audi A4 1.8T Quattro Automatic (with manual shifting). Roughly 95k miles on it. Any help would be awesome!

 

How long ago did you buy the car before it broke? If its days, they should do the work. Weeks, talk to a lawyer. Months, pay the labor.

Obviously this wasnt an Audi dealership?

 

Usually there is a 30 warranty if you bought it from a small dealer. If you don't fall into any warranty, then see exactly what parts are damaged to find out what it would cost to get the car running again. If just the valves got bent, it might be worth it to fix that. If the pistons got jacked up from the valves, you might want to just look into getting a used motor with low miles.

 

its pretty easy to check the t belt yourself. there will be a plastic cover at the front of your engine bay with a couple clips easily in sight. unclip them. the cover wont come off completely but you will be able to see the t belt and inspect it for damage (if there is any slack it is shot)

 

The crappy part about 'only paying for labor' is that the timing belt kit itself is cheap, its the labor that we all pay like crazy for (cant blame them though, not a fun job).

What state are you in? I hope this place will take care of you, they sound nice enough. But if you get continued problems afterwards, it may be helpful to look into your states Lemon Laws.

 

Okay, so I think i bought the car a little over a month ago with no warranty from a small dealer, (used cars only, not Audi specific). I am in north east Pennsylvania (outside of Allentown if anyone knows where that is).

I am almost positive that it is the timing belt, we checked it, when trying to start the car, the belt does not move. However, I will not know until later today whether it is major damage done to the engine or just small things.

I don't only paying for labor, because even if he works on it for a full day at $50/hour that is still less then some estimates I have gotten. but either way, I am going to check into new engines, and lemon laws.

Thank you, and keep posting if anyone else has an idea or thought.

 

id see how much labour is. a new head alone is about 1000 from there its just a matter of mounting the head and timing belt (hopefully) otherwise parting it out would probably be a better option. the car may have been fine if you didnt try to restart it but thats in the past, just looks things over, a t-belt and head install should with labour and all be around 1200 -2000 ish

 

if the belt is still tight but just doesnt move when you crank the engine, you could have broken the key or keyway on the crank that holds the timing cog on. that has happened a few times before. strange for that keyway to let go without much load on the engine though.