Courtney, No, you can replace the belt with it in the car, it's just easier with it out of the car. You should replace the water pump and the front crank seal while you have the thing apart. Cheers! Steve Sears
Adrian, just to follow up on what others have written, the procedure is basically the same for all of the in-line 5-cylinder engines. The 2460 cc diesel 5-cyl is good for many hundreds of thousands of miles, if properly looked after. But... (and it's a big "but") the cam belt does need changing at the right intervals, because if it breaks or slips, the pistons will hit the valves and you'll knacker the head. I see you're in the UK, so you'll need a decent belt for the "maximum revs" smoke test in the MOT anyway, so I'd be inclined to change it just before the MOT every two years.
Also be warned that the belt drives the water pump (water pumps seem to be one of the weak spots of many Audis) and if the pump seizes it'll take the belt with it. This actually happened to me last year on my A6 5-cyl diesel (basically the later version of your model) very shortly after a new belt had been fitted. The belt didn't actually break, but it stripped some of its teeth with expensive results. So I would change the belt and the pump at the same time. On the later 100/A6 you have to take half the front of the car off, so you may want to get someone else to do it. On earlier 5-cylinder models it's easier (I've actually done a cam belt on a 1997 model petrol
100) but the crankshaft nut can be "entertaining", to put it no higher. See numerous threads on this in Google.
In response to the question from another poster about the Haynes manual for a 200 Turbo, the manual number is 0907 (covers the petrol 100/200) and Haynes' website indicates they have it in stock. It doesn't include quattro aspects (come to think of it, I thought all 200s were quattro, BICBW) but it's a useful manual with far more information than some of their more recent stuff.
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.