Cam belt break down on A4 - DON'T BUY AUDI ANYMORE !!!

Audi Germany says the cam belt needs replacing at 120,000 KM. Well, our A4 belt broke down at 113,000 and caused for thousands of dollars damage. Audi New Zealand (who serviced teh car throughout its lifetime) is now saying that 100,000 KM is considered HIGH MILEAGE for an Audi and doesn't want to share the cost....

Reply to
John Smith
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If you had the car serviced at an Audi dealer and its a full service history then they have no come back, unless they advised you change the belt at last service and you said no.

What model Audi is it, I suspect its an 1.8T as there renown for snapping cam belts...?

60k miles is the Audiworld users recommended change time, and 80k if you have a V6 model.

You will have bent a few valves, just take it to a independant garage, if its a 1.8 then your looking at a days labour and the price of a new set of valves. If its a V6 then its quite a bit more expensive.

Ronny

Reply to
Ronny

It's not very brave to poste this message under a false name. Reader nor Audi can verify whether the story is true or not.

Ronald

Reply to
reply

Interesting! It's a 1.8 Avant. Thanks for the advice, Just tonight got a phonecall from Germany and they are NOT happy with the way Audi NZ has handled the case. Don't forget that here in NZ Audi is seen as "prestige" deluxe vehicles onpar with BMW etc. So you pay a lot more for them here than anywhere else. They are expensice cars and the service (also expensive) is supposed to be 100%. We'll see!

Reply to
John Smith

Aha! Didn't even see that myself.... Thought the newsreader would use the same email details as the email program. It's changed now! My name is Robert Smits, the Audi is my wife's: Helen Hendren. And don't you worry: they DO know who we are! Sorry for the inconvenience!

Reply to
Robert Smits

O.K.,

Normally, VAG Audi importers will pay part or all of the repair costs in these cases. Much depends whether the car was maintained by an Audi dealership especially the parts connected to the belt.

If there are serious problems on a certain series of cars, they call back even cars that are 9 years old and repair them for free.

So don't start this "Don't buy Audi..." thing before all misunderstandings are solved.

Good luck,

Ronald

Reply to
reply

"John Smith" wrote

Keep fighting with them. They should at least pay for part of the repairs. Premature timing belt/tensioner failures on the 1.8T engine is a well known issue, at least in the US, where Audi recommends 105K mile or even 120K mile change intervals for these parts, but most of us who are "in the know", replace them every 60K miles or every 4 years, whichever comes first. If you search the A4 B5 forum on AudiWorld.com you'll find a ton of cases like yours.

Good luck with everything. Be sure to also replace the water pump while you're getting the other stuff replaced.

Cheers,

Pete

Reply to
Pete

Great information. I will check these things out. We will have a meeting with Audi NZ today. Thanks all for your help up to now! Robert

Reply to
Robert Smits

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