I have received different info from Audi and have not found an actual answer for the 03 on here but...2003 A4 QT...when do I really need to do the tb? I received the "audi supplement" to the owners manual but it is not real clear. Can someone shed some light on the milage to do it and what the supplement really means? Was there a recall or something? the schedule says to do it at 100k.
As always, thanks. -Chris

 

The recall was only to inspect the belt for free of charge.

They try to replace them every 80-90K Miles.

 

My tech told me anything after 80k miles you're on borrowed time. I'm gonna do mine at 75k if it holds that long. FWIW I'm at 71500 now.

 

60,000 miles is when you want to change them because the heat from the engine degrades the rubber. It just isn't worth it to take your chances, I have seen plenty of A4 owners play that game, when they lose they are always parting or selling the broken car.

 

I did mine at 95 and it was rough. Do it early!

 

Gotta love extended warranty! Mines good to 90k! With all the sludge that builds in these engines, I'm not sure I would mind getting a complete rebuild, and as far as I know, forged internals are still cheaper than OEM Audi. And my warranty company will let me take the car anywhere for repair. I'd like to not have to deal with that, but if I do, I'm not too concerned. If it happens before 75k, oh well. If not, I'll pay the 800 to get it done and call it a day. I did the T/B on my SRT and it was easy. On the Audi(I know **** nothing about German cars) I'll let a pro handle it.

 

Better check your warranty because some of them dont cover "wear" parts. So if the belt breaks they might not cover it or they might just cover the belt itself not the damaged valves/pistons maybe even blow engine.

Believe me I say this because I had a extended warranty on my 95 2G turbo Eclipse, the dealere did a water pump change but decieded not to change the thermastat. Well not more then a week later the head gasket blows out because the engine over heated causing the head to warp. Turned out it happened because the thermostat failed and the fact that the dealer did not put in enough coolant so the gauge did not read that the coolant was getting too hot. Warranty company did not cover anything and the dealer basically said they did the work they were told to do by the Warranty company and then that dealer went out of business not long after that.

Extended Warranties are basically a scam seeing that they take in money up front and then can say they dont want to cover it because of the very fine print. Why do you think every company/store tries to sell an extended warranty on every single product they sell? Because thats where they actually make the money.

 

Had to change my TB at 58k because it had stretched enough to cause idle problems. I think I was probably only a short time away from a catastrophic failure.

Note that even if you do get your motor redone, its likely going to be a remanufatured engine from another A4 whose TB popped.

 

I guess you guys have never built a motor before. A reman is generally better than OEM. And as far as athe warranty goes, that sux about your eclipse, but this is no $2500 car here. And I didn't buy it from Dick's Auto Plaza. Not trying to offend you, but I've been doing this for a long time. Although I can't say I know much about German cars in general, I've been working on domestics and imports for a quarter century now, and have built plenty of motors, and built/tuned a few race engines as well. I'm not the kind of person that is going to buy into some kind of charlie cheese guaranty without reading the fine print. I'm sorry if thats what happened to you. And, not to put salt in your wound, but a timing belt on a 1g/2g/DSM/EVO is about the easiest timing belt you can do. I've done them in a few hours. Why would you pay to have that done, or are you not engine savvy?

 

LOL, sorry to tell you this but this was about 10 years ago that it happend to my Eclipse and 3 years ago I sold that eclipse for $5k(as is) so just shows how much you know about cars. Hell the car was pretty much stock, just lowered with 18's and a dent in the hood. But the paint was very good and was the rare burnt orange color that was only used for the first year of the 2G.

I am 42 and have worked in the automotive industry since I was 14 years so about 28 years. I even worked for a company that sold extended warranties to NEW car dealerships all over the country so believe me I know what they are and how the companies handle the claims.

The dealership dealt with the eclipse becasuse it was coveried by warranty at the time, so why should I do it if it gets done for FREE?


Yeah I am not engine savey seeing that I maintain my own 800+chp A4 1.8t that just happens to be the worlds fastest in case you haven't figured that out yet.


You are right you are not talking about a $2500 car, your talking about a $5k-$10k car that was last built over 5 years ago and doing a timing belt on a Audi A4 1.8t isn't exactly brain surgery. It takes you a few hrs to do a timing belt on a Evo? It takes me less then an hr to remove my quattro transmission and a complete transmission swap or clutch install in a few hrs. lol