2001 change timing belt or not?

Do you guys still recommend changing the timing belt at 60K miles. My car is a 2001 A4 with 83K miles on it, driven by a girl with care, and serviced at very regular intervals. Should I still change the timing belt now or let it past 100K? as it is a 2001 is it still falling under the notorious belt breaking? what do you suggest? Please advise

Reply to
Buying a Used Audi
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:)

Reply to
Ronny

"Buying a Used Audi" wrpte

Are you saying the TB should be in good shape because she drove the car with care? :-)

There have been a few cases of premature TB tensioner failures on 2001s as well, so I wouldn't take a chance. Audi of America has actually reduced the change interval to 75K miles on the newer 1.8Ts (although you didn't say what engine your A4 has).

So, change it NOW (and all the other items I mentioned to you in another post)! You're way overdue.

I'm gonna change it on my '01 A4 next year, even though I won't be near 60K miles yet (36K right now). Time is a factor as well. And the cost of replacement is still much less than the cost of fixing the damages if it fails.

Anyway, that's just my opinion. I'm rather risk-averse. :-)

Cheers,

Pete

Reply to
Pete

As I understand it if you are not the original owner the 10 yr/100K warranty goes out the window. If you are buying it from a dealer then you should get at least a year's warranty on the thing (and you could ask for the TB to be expressly included in the paperwork). If its a private sale/purchase then I'd get it done ASAP - in fact I'd ask the vendor to get it done and negotiate over the price of the thing.

I.

Reply to
Iain Miller

qazimo, Why not try for a record - see if it reaches 300K!!! The belt cares not about the driver's gender, and if it was "serviced at _VERY_ regular intervals" dontcha think the belt would have been replaced already? Seriously, you're being penny-wise and pound foolish if you think you're saving money by running a timing belt twice as long as is the common replacement interval. Just because it ran this morning doesn't mean that it won't break on the highway tonight - unless you've got x-ray vision you won't be able to predict when it'll go, and belt replacement is waaaaaaay cheaper than putting a new engine in after the belt breaks and ingests some of the valves. Cheers! Steve Sears - if I wanted to save money on maintenance I wouldn't own:

1987 Audi 5kTQ 1980 Audi 5k 1962 and '64 Auto Union DKW Junior deLuxes ( - ok, DKW's are cheap to maintain...but still....) (SPAM Blocker NOTE: Remove SHOES to reply)
Reply to
Steve Sears

Ok...BEWARE! The timingbelt in Audi´s tend to get bored, if girls are driving them. So it might commit harakiri, instead of breaking as a result of tear and wear. Also, you´d have to be carefull not to let the timingbelt hear words such as "60.000 miles", "tb-tensioner" and so on! You´ll have to whisper these words, when you are close to the engine...otherwise it might put 2 and 2 together - and actually start making trouble, ´cause it would know something were supposed to be wrong at its present mileage.

Really...are you kidding us!? *ROFL*

Reply to
Jesper Giovanni

Steve, your posting begs the question about what kind of driving causes the belt to fail, regardless of when it it should be changed:

I'm convinced that someone driving nice and easy, seldom over 3000 rpm, never over 3500 rpm, should get much more life out of their timing belt, compared to someone regularly running their engine over 5000 rpm, often redlining.

I'd like to know how many of the "nice 'n easy" drivers here have broken timing belts (assuming that their son or daughter isn't redlining it on weekends).

/Robert

Reply to
Robert

There are likely to be many factors involved in detemining the service life of the timing belt - yes, style of driving will almost certainly have some bearing, but I would guess that pure age and number/degree of temperature cycles will be just as significant.

Reply to
Peter Bell

I'm not always a "nice 'n easy" driver, and neither is/was my sister, from whom I bought this Audi, but for the most part we are just regular drivers who know how to shift the gears correctly and enjoy the power of the car. We don't/didn't race the car, but we did do highway mileage at 75-80 MPH, well within the car's performance capabilities and not exactly abuse. I've never broken a timing belt (and I used to drive a Dodge Colt, which had a Mitsubishi interference engine).

I replaced the TB/water pump/etc. on this 1998.5 A4 2.8 at 67k miles and am now at 82k miles, with plans to inspect the serpentine belt at

90k miles for possible replacement.
Reply to
KLS

I reason I am saying driven by girl with care is that I think the way an engine is driven may have an effect over the suggested interval of timing belt change. You see if you rev the engine most of the time, it will make the belt do more rounds, ultimately more prone to breakage. You see its like, if you abuse an engine it might last for 100K while there are drivers that may run a similar engine for 200K? Does it make any sense to you guys?

Reply to
Buying a Used Audi

Uzytkownik "Buying a Used Audi" wrote

Bare in mind, it's usually the tensioner that fails, not the belt itself.

As far as whether it's a good thing that the car's been driven by a girl and serviced at regular intervals - well, this probably means the oil was only changed every 10K miles and the oil was mineral (that's what the dealer uses). If you have a turbo, I'd say that's a bad thing.

If you have the Audi Assured warranty up to 100K miles, then I guess you're fine. If the TB/tensioner goes before that mileage, Audi will fix all the damages under warranty. If you don't have Audi Assured, then you're taking a big risk, IMO.

Cheers,

Pete

Reply to
Pete

I thought the 10/100 warranty only applied to the original owner & that as soon as the car changed hands it expires......(?)

rgds

I.

Reply to
Iain Miller

"Iain Miller" wrote

Well, the way it works in the US (if that's where the OP is), the original warranty is 4 years/50K miles, and is fully transferrable to the new owner. However, if the used car is sold as an "Audi Assured" certified vehicle by the dealer, it comes with a 10 year/100K mile warranty to the new owner. That's just an incentive for people scared of high repair costs to get them to buy a used Audi. Now, a certified Audi is more expensive, and we don't know if the OP bought one like that or not. If he bought it directly from that girl, then it's definitely not a certified vehicle and his warranty is long gone.

Regards,

Pete

Reply to
Pete

Robert, I agree that the style of driving may affect the _actual_ lifespan of the belt, like, say, a belt in an engine that never sees more than 2000 rpm (driving like my next-door neighbour, she just turned 90) versus the belt in a modified car that is raced on the track and often sees redline (say, drag racing like Shirley Muldowney) - but any other factors come in to play as well - rubber ages with heat (rubber also shrinks but steel expands with heat...go fig), and it also does not like to be dormant for long periods (hence you should be changing a belt after 5 years or so regardless of mileage). As some have posted, it's often the tensioner that siezes and takes out the belt as well, and so the effects of the environment (dust, etc.) and manufacturing (quality of bearings, alignment of bearing with rotation, etc.) come into play with the bearings of the tensioner. I'm sure if you looked enough on the net you would find a site that would get into the stats of belt breakage, showing (I'm guessing) a normal distribution of belt failures, of which, with a confidence interval, of (a guess, again) 95% that belt breakage will be, say, 75,000 miles. The probablility of a belt failure at 20,000 miles with such a distribution is not zero, nor is it at

150,000 miles. The problem is that belts are changed more often than they break (because the consequence of neglect in this case can be engine destruction), so you'd probably never get a large enough sample size to prove any hypothesis. (whooooaaa...flashbacks to stats....) I agree that the stats would be interesting, but qazimo should be shopping around for a belt change. Cheers! Steve Sears 1987 Audi 5kTQ 1980 Audi 5k 1962 and '64 Auto Uni> > qazimo,
Reply to
Steve Sears

qazimo, Although the belt is probably more stressed from acceleration and deceleration, rather than from straight rpm itself, that will have _NO_ effect on the _SUGGESTED_ interval. (Ref: my reply to Robert's posting) The standing suggestion is 60k miles - if you go over that, you're on your own. Cheers! Steve Sears

1987 Audi 5kTQ 1980 Audi 5k 1962 and '64 Auto Union DKW Junior deLuxes (SPAM Blocker NOTE: Remove SHOES to reply)
Reply to
Steve Sears

How does a tensioner fail? Unless I am mistaken, the useful life of a tensioner is from the time you pull the pin to the time you lock the tensioner bolt. After that, I suppose you could remove the tensioner and throw it away. Or does the Audi tensioner work differently than other engines on which I have replaced the timing belt? I am referring to the 1.8T (ATW) engine.

Thanks,

Ken

Reply to
KWS

If you are buying it from a dealer then you should get

The warrenty on my second hand Audi states that the car must be maintained in accordance with the manufacturer'S recomendations and specifically mandates that the timing belt is serviced at the recommended interval. This is a general motor trade insurance based warrenty, not specifically AUdi.

Reply to
Hamish

Here is where it gets confusing.

The dealer showed me some Audi rule book that states that it should be changed at 105kmi but out on AudiWorld.Com those chaps are saying I am pushing my luck even at my 70k.

I bought a CPO car so I asked if it says 105kmi and belt snaps at 7xkmi would repair be covered and they said no.

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AustinMini.OsiTech.Net

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