Next week I'm buying a 2001 TT180 w/39K miles ($15.5K). I've seen a lot of posts about timing belts / tensioners / water pumps. Going just by miles I would expect all these parts to be fine for quite awhile, but this is still a 6 year old car; is age a factor in determining when to replace these parts?

I plan to replace the coolant; is there anything special required by this engine?

How about a good maintenance manual? The TT FAQ's mentions a Bentley CD; can anyone recommend someplace to buy this for a good price?

 

Sounds like a good deal but is it a 225 or quattro?

Due to the age of the car I would check all the normal stuff, belts, hoses, fluids, etc. Probably do a good tune up (plugs, etc) in addition to replacing any thing I found when checking it out that needed it. Not sure if there's an age timeframe that you should doing the timing at if the mileage isn't reached.

Bentley CD: http://www.ross-tech.com/products.html

 

Partsbin.com has them for $66.95
http://oem.thepartsbin.com/parts/the...l&dp=false

The post mentioned it's a 180, didn't specify Quattro or not.

 

Replace the timing belt. The car is 6 years old, the timing belt is rubber, which deteriorates over time, so yeah. A couple of people have shared their stories about what happens when it breaks (to the tune of $5000 - $6000 if I remember correctly). $15,500 sounds good for an 01 TT, so just consider it to be $16,500 instead, assuming someone charges you $1000 (it probably won't be that much though) to do the job.I prefer round figures
Haldex fluid change, battery electrolyte level check, and oil change are the standard 40k mile maintenance, which I assume you will be getting. Possibly another $500 (my best guess, it was somewhere around that for mine I think).

 

It's a quattro. BTW I plan to do most all the maintenance myself.

 

Its usually the timing belt tensioner that fails, or the water pump, the belt holds up, but that doesn't mean looking at it is gonna hurt. Just make sure the belt doesn't have cracks running thru it, if looks ok, you're probably alright to wait until 60K. I wouldn't want to have to tear the side of the car apart any earlier than I have to, but if its piece of mind to you, then go for it. I recommend the dieselgeek.com timing belt kit over the ECStuning.com kit, its cheaper, and includes everything, including the stretch bolts for the motor mount.

If you replace coolant, make sure you use G12 and mix it with distilled water.
Engine oil is ALWAYS full synthetic, I like Mobil1 5W30
If you still want to get down and dirty with some more fluid exchange (hooray for innuendo) its probably a good idea to replace the haldex (quattro) fluid/filter. ECSTuning has a haldex kit for a decent price (I paid $78 for oil/filter from the dealer once). Of course, you're going to need a special wrench to get the filter off. The other 'special tool' is a caulk gun to squeeze the oil back up thru the drain hole in the haldex unit. You need quick hands not to dump it all back out trying to put the drain plug in.

It costs a bit of money to maintain these cars, but think of what you'd be paying if you required a garage to do the work for you?

Welcome to the Audi family.

 

Thanks everybody for the good info. The TTwill be a nice upgrade from 2002 Focus (which has been a great car, can't complain, but still...)!

 

Congratulations. I bought a 2001 w/ 39,500 miles in September and Ilove it. It's the first car of this kind I've ever owned after a lifetime of pickups and my eight year old Ford Explorer (which has been a tremendous car). Just changing lanes puts a smile on my face.

I've put 5,000 miles on it sinceI bought it (long commute--mostly country highway)and just today made the appointment to have the timing belt changed Friday. The earliest failure I could discover was at 4,500 on one of the forums, the car has been in two different climates about evenly split over its service life, and I had a Volvo timing chain go on me and don't want to repeat that experience. There's no way I'd consider going past 50k miles without a change so I figure I'm throwing away 1/10th of the replacement cost for some early peace of mind--well worth it to me.

My check engine light is constantly coming on. Every time I take it in they say it was a couple of transitory codes and nothing to worry about. Someday I'm not going to be worrying when the engine drops out. You'll want to find a place to easily pull the codes when the light comes on and get a list of the codes (I think there's one on this site somewhere).

 

you love honda's, complain about tt maintaince (and dont even own one) AND drive a focus. All i can say is you make my head hurt.

And by the way if its a '01 and a 180 its just a FWD car.

http://www.automotive.com/2001/09/audi/tt/index.html
http://www.internetautoguide.com/car.../tt/index.html