Agreed. Your belt is old. Whats the difference if you change it now or one year from now?

 

I say contact the lawsuit administrators about this, there should/has to be some kind of standard criteria for inspection, it can't just be based upon what the dealer thinks. It is in the dealer's interest to say you need a new belt, and anything that relies upon the dealer's interest is pretty much going to go against what we or the lawsuit are shooting for. I guess my only other question is, how is all of this affected by mods? Can the dealer, even if you decided to get the belt replaced for the warranty, not honor the warranty if you have bolt-ons, a tune, or even a BT? The more I hear about actually dealing with this lawsuit/the dealer, the more likely I am to just do my TB and give up on thinking the dealer is good for anything but actually buying a car. No wonder VAG has such a s**tty reputation as compared to BMW or Mercedes

 

Correct me if I'm wrong guys... but isn't it the impeller that is the cause of the whole issue in general?

If so, theoretically, changing the timing belt wouldn't exactly solve the problem. Right?


In the event that I'm mistaken, please disregard my post!


-Ron

 

What usually fails is the tensioner, and the water pump impeller is known to disintegrate, but there is no reason to re-use an old belt when you're using new parts otherwise. When you do a TB job you replace all the parts, not just the belt. See the ECS or MJM kit for clarification

 

I just replaced a failed tensioner in my car. I did my timing belt a year ago (34K miles ago).

Originally, they were problems, now its fixed, I was just unlucky and got a bad one. Could happen with anything. I've had sparkplugs bad right out of the box.

BTW, Just pull the damn motor mount out. No need to try to fight your way around it.

Tricky part is getting the tensioner and mount out/in. Almost have to move them both at the same time, or there isn't enough room for either.

 

Jakej said: "Agreed. Your belt is old. Whats the difference if you change it now or one year from now?"

The difference is that the lawsuit requires Audi to cover any damage to the engine caused by a failure of the timing belt system (belt, tensioner, water pump) for 105,000 miles regardless of age.

How long is the warranty on the replacement belt? 30 days/3000 miles maybe.

I88 said: "there should/has to be some kind of standard criteria for inspection, it can't just be based upon what the dealer thinks. It is in the dealer's interest to say you need a new belt, and anything that relies upon the dealer's interest is pretty much going to go against what we or the lawsuit are shooting for."

My thoughts exactly. But Audi of America says they trust their dealers to do the right thing. After doing a little research it seems the only sure way to check the belt is to remove for the vehicle. But then why would you put an old belt back on?

Has anyone else had their timing belt inspected?

Thanks for all the replies/

 

I just had my 01 tt with 22k on it in the dealer for other service and they did the timeing belt inspection. They came back to me and said that my belt is dry rotting and needs to be replaced. The car has spent most of its life in a temp controlled enviroment and got 14k of the 22k miles put on in the last 10 months.

They wanted 1700 for the replacement.

would the belt really dry rot that fast?

 

^^^^^ yes. Your belt is OLD.... 8 years old. Audi reccommends replacment after 6 years. You would need to do it sooner or later anyway.

Also- I would not count on audi to cover any repairs nessary due to a broken TB.

 

^champion Audi that I go to is awesome with covering things. It just depends on who works there.

 

TOO MUCH. Find an independant euro shop and get a quote. It should cost you HALF that.