engine screwed" type TJW

Never mind. Just talked to Audi service. Definitely a "belt breaks, camshafts stop, pistons collide,

Tristan

wow, news to me. I stand corrected.

Tony

nt

bd_juju

Why scary? That's standard. (PS: Change it!)

BillV

Most manufactures recommend 60K and I have heard too many stories about early failure and have even had it happen in one of my cars at 58K two days prior to appointment for change. 70K just seems too long even though materials are getting better but on a car that in most cases gets pushed....would you take the chance?

dave m.

back in 1990, I was the proud owner of a 1988 VW Jetta GLI 16V (I wont bore you with all of the mods/hop-ups I did to it. Rest assured, the car was the love of my young life...). One early afternoon, I was on my way to work. I was sitting at a stop light and the light turned green. I put the car in gear and begain to feed the clutch and gas. All of a sudden, there was a thump-like sound and the engine died. Ignorant bugger that I was, I thought I simply stalled the engine. So...I cranked the engine, there was a high pitched whine as I cranked and there was no sensation of compression (I said I was young and stupid, didn't I?). So, I tried to crank it one more time. Same thing, high speed whine. Fast forward to the next day and the phone call from the service advisor at the dealer. he said the timing belt was broken and that I damaged two valves (considering were 16 valves, the damage could have been greater). My odometer had 63k on it and I had an appointment in 8 days to for service. final cost of repair was $675. From now on, if I own a car with a timing belt, as opposed to a chain, I am going to replace it 10k miles BEFORE the recommended service interval.......

TJW

build weekend racers.
He says the engine is designed so the valves cycle to a point where all are in the middle of their stroke, so none are all the way up, and none are all the way, interfering with the pistons.
So they don't spin with the crankshaft, they just stop in a safe position.
Whatever the explanation, I was shown my engine with the valve covers removed.
The mechanic cycled to valves by hand to show me the interference, and there was no damage, so obviously there is something that protected from a collision.

jwolff

Why doesn't Audi use chains. VW has timing chains on their VR6. Also BMWs have chains.