The belt is not the only part changed when doing a timing belt job - the water pump gets changed, too, and the parts alone cost > $200. My understanding is that it's about 6 hours of labor. Obviously if you're comfortable doing it yourself, you can save a bundle on the labor, but I just figured you should know that the parts are more than $50.

Congrats on the purchase, and enjoy your new car!

 

Well it's mine now. It handles way better than my old car. Any idea on the RPM range where the turbo starts to kick in? It never felt for a lack of power. I haven't figured out all the buttons either though. I'm pretty impressed so far.

Also the T belt was replaced at about 55k. I will probably inspect just to be safe.

 

The stock turbo is pretty small and runs a light amount of boost pressure. The 1.8T also has a very high compression ratio for a turbo engine. Because of those things, it's making max boost early in the rev range, and the transition from off boost to on boost is pretty much invisible. I've personally never noticed it; it just feels like an N/A engine that makes an exceptionally good amount of torque for its displacement. If you ever upgrade to a K04 or other larger-than-stock turbo, you'll notice the transition a lot more (and of course make more power).

The T-belt having been replaced only 7K ago is awesome; you shouldn't have to worry about that for a long time then.

 

That's good to know on the turbo. Considering the high compression plus turbo, what fuel grade is recommended?

 

91 octane or better is what Audi recommends for the car. My understanding is that you can get away with lower grades in "emergency" situations when 91+ is not available, but that performance will be decreased due to the ECU retarding the timing in order to compensate for the lower grade fuel. Regular and/or continual use of lower grades is obviously not recommended.