fxmandmmm

The timing belt on my A4 jumped causing a lot of damage to my engine. The car has only 60,000 miles. In doing some research, I've found that this is a recurring problem around that mileage in 1998 A4 1.8T's. For those who had timing belt or tensioner problems, would you know exactly what caused the timing belt or tensioner problem??? Please be as specific as possible. Thanks for your help!

Speedy

As I understand it (though not from personal experience), there is "often" a failure of the belt tensioner. It has been redesigned, and there is now a Timing Belt Replacement Kit, which includes a new belt, tensioner, and thermostat (?) as a standard parts item.

Good luck!

Cheers,

lugerwcw

have a 97 1.8t @ 60,000 service evreything looked fine accroding to dealer tensioners and all nothing needs to be changed till the 90k according to dealer had hims look @ timing belt said it looked good yeah right after 2 weeks tensnor went out and destroyed everything having to foot bill and possible litigation

eMKay (BFLO)

Me too, 7K to go.

Cool Craig

motor's had a rough life, and I cant believe it hasnt broken yet...everything else has?? ; /

G. Hale

You can't tell by looking at the belt if it's good or not. It doesn't seem to show wear like a serpentine belt. I doubt that they looked at the belt as it would have taken a lot of labor costs to take it all apart to get to the belt.

One thing that concerns me though is that I'm scheduled to get mine changed this Tuesday and was told that the tensioner pulley usually doesn't need to be changed, so they were not replacing that part. I may have them to anyway since it appears that the tensioner pulley is the one causing the problems. They gave the impression that the idle pulley had a higher risk of failure. I'm at 86k miles now though, so haven't had the early failure..... But I have the 2.8 and not 1.8T.

G. Hale
'98.5 2.8 QMSX

Skene @ PES Tuning

My timing belt broke at 42k miles.... how upsetting is that....

Liam in Montreal

but got lazy and did it at 80k miles. Lucky me I guess.

best of luck

regards,
Liam

lugerwcw

I used to work on calls while i was in school
u still can look @ the belt if no nipples no go

Andy Hedin

Not just 1998 1.8T's.....1997 1.8T owners should change prior to 60k as well!