KYNZ

Its official fellas - my A8 is back in action and running better than ever! (knock on wood). If you all remember ive been chasing this terrible harmonic vibration at certain speeds and a rough idle and misfires left and right...well, after 1.5 weeks and $3400 its all better now. Turns out the Tbelt had been changed (or attempted to be changed) before and was done beyond terrible! Both cams were mis-timed (in opposite directions) and i was 30% low on compression on the entire bank 2. I also had a bent pulley on my serp belt. Long story short, my rough idle, misfires, and harmonic vibration all stemmed from bad timing (which was suggested a long time ago...but i didnt want to delve into that project back then...stupid me. Thanks for all the help and all your suggestions. The info proved more than valueable here. Thanks. I will post a scan of the list of parts i had replaced for your enjoyment (and cringing) when i get a chance.

A

icsamerica

I had a similar situation... I purchased a 1998 A8 for a song. The previous owner stated that the car never ran right after he had the timing belt done. He also stated the shop checked it and confirmed the belt was done right and there was some other problem. He sold the car to me, I put the belt on right and enjoyed the car until the transmission went. It just goes to show you that there are many people who claim to be mechanics but are not qualified.

ttuling

All right, good news. That sounds like a competent shop.

Mr. Z

every time I bring the car in for one thing, some other thing starts going wrong. Once or twice could be a coincidence with a 10 y.o. car, but... Also, it seems like every time it is in there, it needs to come back to have the repair "fine tuned" (or re-fixed) shortly thereafter.

These guys mean well, are Benz certified all over the place and have lots of higher-end cars serviced there, but Audi ain't M-B. They also over-rely on their generic OBD-II scanners and what I believe is non-factory online repair doc info they have (something called AllData). I offered to buy them a short-term Audi factory doc sub when working on my car, but they swear by this AllData system.

Mr. Z

How much of this shows up in VAG-COM?

ttuling

OBD-II isn't enough, but some third party manuals look just like the Bentley