Whats with it, I talked to my friends brother and my cousin and they said they timing belts went on their cars, and because of a flaw in audi engines, if that just so happens to go, you need a new engine...

is this true? do audi have problems with timing belts?

 

i dont think the flaw is in audi engines cause if it was they wouldnt be selling cars still. Dont get me wrong the motor has its flaws but audis arent like hondas or toyotas. They require a bit more love and care! Odds are they werent following service schedules. . .

 

As Pa4ul says, If you maintain them as you're supposed to, they will run a very long time. Timing belts should be done at the intervals stated in the manual. Most of the one's I've seen with 'blown engines' are because the owners did not follow the maintenance intervals....no flaw with the Timing Belt...just maintenance that needs to be followed.......I'm approaching 300,000 miles on one of my Audis...my engine still ROCKS!

 

i just did mine on my my self (b7 a4 2.0t) and most of what ive heard about the timing belts is how time intensive and expensive they are to do. while its true it is time intensive, you can do it yourself pretty easily if you have a day or two and can lift it enough and you are methodical with it and do everything in order
i got away with $750 from europa and got EVERYTHING i needed...and a few things i didnt

 

THERE IS A FLAW WITH THE DESIGN OF THE TIMING BELT HYDRAULIC TENSIONER. All the stories you know about are true... one problem with these cars is that Audi decided to have 5 valves per cylinder, yay what a great idea , i have seen way too many heads with bent valves due to a failure of the tensioner. Most of the time the part will fail before the "recommended service" is due... and then you buying a lot more valves that you should... and if not all the time then most of the time the cars are a nightmare to work on... The only amazing thing is those cars is the quattro system, hand down one of the best, aside from that nothing else is worth your time with one of those cars... the 1.8T are horribly underpowered for the platform if stock and the 3.0 is complete failure.

 

About the only part of this that I can agree with after all the years of wrenching on these cars is that the hydraulic tensioner is the typical source of timing system failures. It does happen, but not very often. It's just that you rarely hear from the vast majority who had no problem with theirs. There is nothing wrong with a five valve design and that has nothing to do with it being an interference engine. Five valve heads were designed to improve breathing efficiency and swirl/mixture. They aren't the reason the heads take damage if the belt or tensioner fails.

The cars can be a pain in the *** to work on but not notably moreso than most others. I'm not a fan of boosted Audi motors though as they seem to have more headaches than the NA motors and more than other turbo engines from other companies.

Your tensioner is unlikely to fail in the near future. Some have failed prematurely, some have gone 150k miles or more and still been good, and most will show signs of piston extension when you go to change them, but will not have failed.

 

Apparently you understand nothing about swirl and mixture if you thing Audi design that for a purpose... I have seen a 5V head on a flow bench, trust me its nothing else but a disaster...
And please explain to us what other car is as big of a pain to work on? Its well known that the words Audi and reliability are two words which cannot be used in the same sentence. Studies have proved that... In most cases unless you are experienced with above the average skills with working on cars those cars will be nothing else but a huge money pit.

 

They allow for better swirl by staggering the open/close of the center intake valve by several degrees compared to the outer two. This creates more swirl relative to a four-valve design.

As for reliability, you need to consider more than the turbo cars. We all know they're not reliable. My 30v is well over 232k miles. It stranded me once, when the fuel pump went. Talk to other V6 owners and ask how often they've broken down. Yes, the cars have issues like combi switches and ball joints that are known to fail but any other car has its signature weaknesses as well.

As for other cars being a pain, work on a 300ZX or RX7 sometime and see if it's a convenient car to service. Take a shot at wrenching on a transverse engine when it needs belt or accessory work. Those are a pain in the *** and don't have the benefit of the service position these cars have, which is NOT difficult to do and gives unfettered access.

Last, stop taking a dick attitude when someone presents a counterpoint. Save that **** for AZ or Vortex. We don't act that way here, and most of us tend to quickly tune out and ignore those who do. In this case, you know nothing of me, my experience with cars, or anything else, so making the statement that I would know nothing about swirl mixtures on a 5v head is ignorant. A 5v setup can easily and efficiently breathe. Can there be other factors, like port design and size, entry angles, etc, that can negate some of those benefits? Of course. But that doesn't shoot down the fact that 3 holes flow more air than two slightly larger ones, and it doesn't disprove the swirl properties that can be realized with staggered valve event timing.

 

Well I guess you have it all figured out... No need for more info. I am pretty sure all the 3.0 owners are amazed of how reliable are easy to work on their engines are... especially when it comes to timing belt replacement.
And keep in mind your engine started its life as 2 valve, yes a 2 valve... the best configuration on a head there ever was. Please find a shop or testing facility which owns a flow bench and see the difference for yourself... there is a simple reason why the most powerful engines in the world are still 2 valve.

 

Now that I've had your lessons, I'm done wasting time off the topic of the OP's question. To that point, no, there are no more frequent failures of the timing system on these cars than on others, as long as maintenance is done on time and not neglected.