Hello all, first off I'd like to apologize if this has been discussed before, but I wanted an opinion for my particular situation. About 2 months ago I purchased a 2005 a4 1.8tq6m. I love it by the way. Over the past two months I have noticed the headlight moisture problem, and today being the wonderful day that it is, I decided to tear into it. So i got the light taken out and replaced the o-ring for the adjustment motor. I was putting it all back together when I decided to take a look at my timing belt. I found a bunch of little hair line cracks on the outside (smooth side) of it. I have a little over 50K miles on it, I plan on doing it sometime between 60 and 65, but this made me wonder if I should do it even sooner than that. Take a look and let me know what you think.

 

is that an actual notch out of the belt on the left?? that def needs to be changed, and i would talk to audi of america about paying for it.

 

That seems more like the clip from the cover. But your belt looks quite shitty, have a few techs look at it see what they think, or maybe someone with more experience on the forums. If it was me I would change the belt.

 

That little spot looks like the tab for the cover when it sits on the metal lip of the valve cover.

It wouldn't hurt to change it now since you plan on changing it in a few thousand miles anyway. If you need a good price on a timing belt kit let me know.

 

Hey thanks everyone. Yeah that little black part is just a piece of the cover. I din't feel like taking the whole thing off just for a quick look. Do you think I would have any problems getting it to 65K miles?

 

Big risk. If that belt breaks it take the head with it, and sometimes the block as well.