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I have a 2001 A6 Avant with the 2.8 liter ATQ engine. Replacing the serpentine belt can be done fairly easily if you have complete and accurate information. This is what I learned when I replaced my old belt. The directions are as you face your work therefore, right is towards the left or driver’s side of the car.

1. Buy a new serpentine belt that fits your car. The Continental ContiTech 6 PK 1885 fits well. Some manufacturer’s make a 1880 mm belt and this will probably be a tight fit even with the tensioner in the full loose position.
2. Remove the plastic engine cover and belly pan.
3. Draw a diagram of the belt and pulley positions. There are many diagrams on the internet that are supposedly for your engine. Most of them are inaccurate. Basically the belt is in a circle around the five pulleys and it is pulled up on the left side of the crank pulley and positioned over the top of the tensioner wheel.
4. The tensioner has a 17 mm bolt head cast into the housing. Find a picture of the part on the internet to see what it looks like. You can’t see it clearly on the car. This is a spring loaded tensioner.
5. Use a socket wrench with a long, 14 inches at least, handle. Put the socket onto the bolt head with the wrench handle a little left of perpendicular to the floor. The electric fan housing will limit how far left the wrench can be placed. Pull then push the wrench handle to the right past the engine driven fan blades using your right hand.
6. Lift then pull the belt towards you and off the top pulley using your left hand. Get the belt width fully clear of the pulley.
7. Let your wrench handle move back to the left and relieve the tensioner force. Your wrench handle will engage the electric fan housing if you started too far left with your initial socket placement.
8. Your old belt will be too brittle to twist and remove it from the bottom pulleys. Trust your ability to get the new belt on. Cut the old belt with any appropriate tool that you may have available. A large cutting tip pliers with jaws spanning the belt width works well.
9. Pull the old belt off the pulleys.
10. Grasp the new belt with two hands and twist the bottom so the ribs face towards the car. Slide the belt between the engine driven fan blades and the radiator. Be careful to not contact and damage the radiator fins.
11. Let the belt down onto the tubes that are along the bottom of the engine and radiator. There is very little space between these tubes and the pulleys.
12. Use a long and narrow stick, or serpentine belt installation tool if you are well endowed with tools, and push the belt through the slot between the tubes and generator, or left pulley. You may be able to move the belt under the crank pulley and air-conditioner compressor pulley using your hands.
13. Get under the car and push the belt up on the left side of the crank pulley. Use a long screw driver or that belt tool and slip it between the tubes and oil pan to push against the bottom of the belt.
14. Now you can reach the belt you pushed up and pull it up towards the tensioner wheel using your hand.
15. Align the belt with the bottom of the lower pulleys and the side of the fan pulley. Then pull the belt up and over the top of the tensioner wheel.
16. Put your socket wrench on the tensioner bolt head. Pull then push the wrench handle to the right and move the tensioner into the full loose position using your right hand.
17. Pull the belt up and over the top of the upper pulley using your left hand. Make sure the belt stays aligned with the lower pulleys. The belt ribs will help maintain position.
18. Let the wrench handle move back towards the left and increase belt tension. Adjust the position on the drive pulleys if needed before putting full tension on the belt.
19. Remove any gunk that you knocked onto the pulleys while messing with the belt. Get all your tools and hands out of the way. Start the engine and watch the belt go round and round and let yourself feel happy about all the great work you just accomplished.
20. Shut her down and replace the plastic belly pan and engine cover.
21. You know the rest of the routine.