First off, I drive an Audi 2003 A4 3.0 Quatro. It has just a little over 50K on the odometer, and I believe I just missed the factory warranty. I was driving on the freeway for about 20 minutes when I noticed a rattling noise under the hood. Next comes the red battery light indicator on, and the carstarted to drive funny. The steering wheel wasbecoming extremely hard to turn. Itfelt to me like the car died out, but the rpm was still up. But anyhow, I pulled over and had my friend come rescue me, because it was getting scary.My friend was able to drive the car, but Ican see he was breaking a sweat trying to turn the steering wheel. The good news was I made it home safe. My friend then looked under the hood to see thatin front of the engine, the belt was off. He was able to pull the belt upwards, but was unable to get it off of the car. It turns out the the belt hadNOT snapped, but had slipped out of the pulley instead. Now how can this happen? I've been driving the car for the past half year, and never had a problem. Nowis this a simple repair job where the belt just needs to be placed back onto the pulley, or is it that something brokeleading to this situation? Am I looking to spend a lot of money? I did do some research earlier, and sawsomebody with a similar situation. It turnedout that a seal brokeor something like that, and that it was recommended that he change the timing belt as well. Now would this be a similar situation like mine? I'm worried that I'll have to spend an arm and a leg to fix this problem. Please,any suggestions or comments would behighly appreciated. I've also read that the timing beltdoesn't need to be replaced until 105K. Isthat right? Thanks guys..

Sheri

 

most likely ur tensioner pulley is messed up. that's the part that keeps the tension on the belt. just check it. should be around the top area sumwhere

 

That's great! At least I know I don't have to spend the extra money now, so that's good. God, it really sucks though. I just bought this car like 4 in a half months ago, and it had only 45,000 miles. I really didn't expect this to happen so soon. And it's not like I don't keep up with the maintanance; it just hasn't been time to yet. Now if I have a bad tensioner, does that mean I have to replace the tensioner? I'm pretty sure the tensioner is expensive right? Thanks again for the help though.

You know, I'm also wondering if there's a recall on this particular tensioner part. I just don't think it should fail at such low milege, and especially right after the warranty period expires!

 

This happen to me so I put the belt back on and the tension went in like 3 months. I had to drive over a 100 miles with no accessories belt[>:]. I would look into changing the tensioner

 

What am I looking to spend on a tensioner, and how hard is it to replace? I find that a lot of Audi owners are having tensioner problems as well, so maybe Audi should recall this part.

 

100 beans
link
Its not too hard to change on the 2.8's i dont know about the 3.0's

 

this happened to me...kinda i was ripping through belts, if its not the tensioner, just check and make sure all the "things" the acces belt drives over are not loose or moving at all. And make sure each pulley spins smoothly.

 

this doesnt affect the water pump on the 3.0? on my car when blew the belt (i want to call it the serpentine belt, not sure what audi calls it) it ran my alternator power steering and water pump. even if you pay for someone to do it, it should only be an hour of work plus parts. somewhere just over $100.

 

yeah taking the whole belt tensioner out only took me about 20 minutes then putting it back in another 15. belt going on didnt take long at all, just helps with two people.

 

Yeah you def dont need to change the timing belt till 100k miles. It sounds like the tensioner pulley. I would just buy a new one of those and a new belt. Try taking it up to Auto Zone or Advanced Auto Parts and they might have both the parts for under 100 bucks.