mbevins

My car is currently at the indy to have the valve cover gaskets replaced (hard to believe they would actually leak )Once we got in there we discovered the cam solenoids were leaking,sooo of course we move down that road next. Well the book tells the indy he needs to remove a whole bunch of stuff to get to the front one (driver side).

Well here comes the dilemma do a timing belt change while we are in there? The car has 100K on it and the TB service was done at 65K. By my calculations I would have to have it done in another 30K or so anyway and the actual parts are not that expensive.

So now how far do I go?

paulroad

waate of $$$$$.
mine was done at 105 and the next will be done at 200+

mbevins

Paul that is not the point,
When I bought the car in December the TB (along with all the other related stuff) was done but now that I have all this ripped open anyway should I just bite the bullet and redo it. The one main advantage is then I know what was done and how it was done. I wouldn't do the WP but the other stuff might make sense since even if I wait to do the TB at 160K that is in reality only 3 years away. Anyway this way I get 5 years before I have to open the front end again. Now that being said when will I have to do the turbos which will require the engine to be pulled out anyway.

paulroad

why would you have to do the turbos unless they blow?


Personally I'm not in favor of while I'm there work that is costly regardless.

To accellerate a repair THREE YEARS and not even do it right it not a good choice in my opinion.

The point of the TB job in not really the TB itself, its all the other hardware. Most anyone who has had a failure will tell you it was not the belt that failed. It was the waterpump, the idler, the bearing, etc.

Just fix what is needed and move on..enjoy the eride.

mbevins

Well based on what I have seen here I just assumed that the turbos are pretty well toast after about 150K.
At which time I would pull the engine and put in Ko4's.
I'm not looking to replace stuff for the sake of replacing it I just am not one to put off doing what makes sense solely on the additional cost

paulroad

most of us all have our originals... ok mine blew at 30k but the warranty replacements now have 160k mostly chipped and all hard driving.

CORS6

If I could add conformation to this point. I was just looking thru the AR section to brush up on current events. (in the market for an AR)

I just completed 2 timing belt jobs on RS6s this past weekend. My car had 32k and a friends had 75k. (RS6 TB is 35k and 75k) What paulroad says about the TB condition is very correct. Both TBelts looked perfect. Mine with 32k and 6+yrs and the other had 47k and 4yrs.

That said, the waterpump was junk at 75k. The pass side roller (which the 2.7 shares) was also junk at 75k. The same roller was just starting to get noisy in the bearing at 32k. The other larger pulleys and lever were fine both at 32k and 75k. The 4.2 share the same TB design and the RS6 adds a second upper roller on the drivers side.

So, if all the rollers, thermostat and waterpump were changed at 65. I think I would leave it alone. If all those items were not changed...then you have a choice to make.

Good luck. I hope to add an AR to my garage soon.

mbevins

Well gentlemen that is good enough for me. I've told the indy to check mechanicals around the TB with the intent of leaving well enough alone

grat

I do agree with previous. Do you know, e.g. have records, what was done with the TB service? If the accessories were replaced then, you should have another 60K before it needs to be redone.

What should have happened is the TB service should have been done at 105K; if it had been put off, all of the seals you're now replacing would have been done in the same single service. Because it was done early the seals were still good. However now they are failing and the more normal 100K mark.

btw: my stock K03s lasted 196K.

fj..