Stoney

I read many old messages on this board about changing the timing belt. Most agreed it was best to change between 60 and 66k, at latest 75k. Some people commented that the water pump should be changed at the same time, or at least was good preventive maintenance, cheap insurance against a leak.

Well, today my wife took the 97 A4 1.8T into Burlingame Independent for her 60k maintenance. I had called the shop yesterday and suggested replacing the water pump, but the mechanic, Greg, said this was probably too conservative. "Where would you stop? Replace the radiator too just because you have the radiator off?" The mechanic thought that the 6 cylinder A4s use an older water pump design which needs to be replaced sooner, but not so with the 4 cylinder.

I persisted, and he admitted it might need to be replaced by 90k. I pointed out that spending $130 for the part and an additional hour for labor was a small price compared to spending two hours later to replace it, plus the damage and inconvenience that might result.

So, today, at my request, they replaced the water pump. To their surprise, the water pump was leaking slightly, with signs of corrosion. I bet they recommend replacing the water pump to their other customers, now. My wife wondered if perhaps we might be one of the first A4s they've seen that has reached 60k, being a 1997 and the first year of the turbo.

The mechanic mentioned that they service mostly 6 cylinder A4s, rarely any 4 cylinders. Why would that be? They didn't know why. Any ideas?

We generally like this shop, and they remembered our car and asked about previous repairs. For example, when our transmission went into limp mode some months ago (days before our wedding), they were the only shop that, over the phone, correctly predicted that possibly the cable might have liquid causing bad connections. Replaced the cable, and no more limp mode.

But, why don't they do more 4 cylinders? Perhaps there is a vicious cycle: lack of experience with 4 cylinders leads to lack of customers? Or, do the turbo owners use tuning shops that cater to chippers?

stngray

it is driven by the timing belt and should it lock up it would cause the timing belt
to break and cause all kinds of problems. The water pump on the 1.8t is a conventional water pump driven by an external belt and should it lock up it will not cause the valves to hit the pistons. I am not 100% sure, I have never really looked into this.

Andy Hedin

....I'm at 65,000 miles and have to get my butt in to have my timing-belt changed. I have the new parts at home (updated timing-belt tensioner and t-belt).

Andy Hedin

<i>The mechanic mentioned that they service mostly 6 cylinder A4s, rarely any 4 cylinders. Why would that be? They didn't know why. Any ideas?</i>

Some reasons....

1) The 1.8T engine wasn't available in the U.S. until the 1997 model year. So there are a bunch of 6-cylinder 1996 A4's out there. Cahances are, those A4's are getting up in miles, thus they need more attention than the newer 1.8T A4's.

2) The 6-cylinder A4 *probably* outsells the 1.8T (my guess....I could be wrong).