swedishfarmer

Hi All
I’m new to this forum and just wanted to check in, say hi and ask for some advice.
We recently moved from the UK to Sweden and needed to buy a car in a hurry. I’ve had Audi’s before so with a growing family, a 2002 A6 2.4 Avant Quattro (C5, BDV engine) was the best I could get at the time. I’ve tried to find out what I can but there’s still plenty I don’t know when it comes to dealing with its issues, of which there are a few.

The main one is the engine was replaced (the previous one “crashed” -presumably timing belt fail), but I don’t know if the timing belt was replaced when swapped so I’m planning to do that. The new engine has 164,000 written on it, so that’s presumably how many km’s it’s done (about 100,000 miles). The belt itself looks in good condition - you can still see the writing.
Does anybody know the change interval for it. I’ve read differing reports, 60k miles, 60k km, 4 years, 3 years, 90k miles?
If I change the belt and pump, what’s a decent kit to get and is there anything else I should do while I’m in there and do I need any special tools? I’m pretty handy, and have some making facilities to hand - welder, lathe etc. so I can fab some basic tools.

The spark plug cavities are swimming in oil. Seems to be a common problem, so new rocker cover gaskets all round. But, what’s a good manufacturer, Elring, Reinz? We’re on a bit of a tight budget to be honest, but I’m happy to pay a bit more for parts that are likely to be more reliable.
I’ve read cam seals also need replacing. Anything else, and any special tools needed?
There are other issues but they can probably wait till I get these sorted.

Any ideas, pointers, advice from out there would be great.
Thank you for looking.

AudiNike12

I've the same engine as you(125kw). In the manual it says 180k km or 8 years for the timing belt but most people do it at 120k km.

Also have the same problem with leaking oil so I'm about to change the valve cover gaskets. I bought Elring gaskets

swedishfarmer

Hi AudiNike12
Thank you for getting back to me and letting me know what the manual says. It's good to know what the official policy is. I've ordered an english language user manual from ebay, and I'm hoping it'll give me the information I need (oil type, service intervals etc).
I'm guessing that the timing belt must have been done relatively recently as the writing is still visible and there don't seem to be polished or any cracks in it, so perhaps it doesn't need to be done as urgently as I thought. Maybe it can wait until the engine gets to 2-240k km?

I think I'll go straight for the valve cover gasket too. From what I read in this post (https://www.audiworld.com/tech/eng107.shtml), it looks like the cam tensioner seals need changing too while you're in there. It looks a bit more complicated because you need to faff around with the cams according to this video ( ) from Blauparts and it details the parts needed at 1.04, but these are for a 2.8 or 2.7. (There's a blauparts playlist here for the whole process ... https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...19D164D513777A)
I'm still wondering what extra parts are needed for a 2.4 BDV? The 2.4 doesn't look like it went to USA, so there isn't as much info about it. Is it roughly the same as the 2.8 engines?

clancy

On the 2.7 & 2.8 the timing belt service also includes several other parts, water pump idler tensioner etc. Sometimes these parts fail before the actual timing belt. I once bought a 96 A6 2.8 partly because the timing belt had just been done, only to learn they did not do the other parts. The pulley bearings went within 5000 miles of the belt being replaced. I caught it just before the timing belt broke because the pulley wobble due to the bad bearings tore away nearly the whole belt's width. Although if your belt looks new then they probably did these parts as well. Hopefully

AudiNike12

No problem. As you said, the 2.4 were not available in the US. The 2.8 engine is kinda the same. Here's a guide to change the valve cover gaskets for the 2.8

https://www.audiforums.com/forum/diy...-a4-a6-193073/

It looks the same as the 2.4. I'll only do the valve cover gaskets. Looks a bit complicated with the other one

swedishfarmer

Hi Clancy, that's good to know. I might just give the pulleys and other bits a closer inspection because I think I may need to change the serpentine belt soon. It's looking a bit frayed and cracked. Is this any indication of timing belt age? The timing belt did look like it was in pretty god nick.
If I do the serpentine belt I'll take a closer look at the timing belt and check the pulleys for wobble.

swedishfarmer

Yeah, the cam tensioners look a bit tricky. If I get around to doing them too, I'll try to do a writeup if I can't find a decent one.