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Audi TT Timing Belt Problems
I have a 2000 Audi TT FWD. It is a california Car. I am the 2nd owner the fist was a movie actor whos mother in law lives on the east cost. The fist thing we did was up grade the clutch using a VW Jetta the original clutch is made poorly. The Main thing is the Timing Belt. If you don't change it at 60 thousand mile get ready for a new motor, like I,m installing today out of a wreck with lower miles.
Good luck. Also the 2000 and 99 A6s has a throttle plate problem. It freezes up in the winter check with your dealer if if you live in the northern states. :sick:
Good luck. Also the 2000 and 99 A6s has a throttle plate problem. It freezes up in the winter check with your dealer if if you live in the northern states. :sick:
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Instrument Cluster, Starter, Blinker Switch, Glove Box Latch.
Also had that recall done where they give you a new suspension, and a spoiler, which goes down in history as the best recall ever.
My warranty expires in 1500 miles. I've heard I should have the timing belt done at 85. What should I expect in terms of troubles in the upcoming 10-20k miles?
Thanks in advance for the help.
-Charlie
I'm thinking about getting an '01 180hp with 60k miles. Do you recommend going through with it?
Thanks.
Once that timing belt snaps, you will need to replace major engine parts costing thousands of dollars. Thats if your whole engine doesnt seize/melt. (Engine Blown)
After what I've read about this issue, im going to get this fixed before the belt snaps off, cause once it snaps off, you will need to replace very expensive parts. (cylinder head/engine)
Being that this is not covered via recall, you will have to pay for this out of your pocket. This repair costs $1400.00 to $2000.00 depending on what Audi dealer you go to.
I think there is a class action lawsuit, but do not quote me. Anyhow a class action will not help this problem at all.
Consider this a heads up to "ALL" Audi TT Owners.
Belts been snapping on Audi TT's with 47k to 80k miles on there engines.
Thankfully, I had the foresight to purchase a third-party warranty for 4 years of 48,000 miles which will cover the belt and the valve damage.
The list of problems I have had with this car are too numerous to list here but suffice itto say that in the first 2 months I owned the car, it was only in my possession for 11 days. It had an endless stream of unrelated problems. The timing belts were the subject of a class action lawsuit that Audi settled a few years ago, but the settlement only applied to specific model years of A4 despite the fact that the same engine in used in many models of VW and Audi and similar timing belt problems seem to be noted for most of them. My dealer's Service Department acknowledges that the timing belts in the turbocharged models are subject to more strain then in cars that are not turbocharged. They also tell me that they encourage customers to have the belts replaced well in advance of the 90,000 deadline. In my case, it appears that I may end up doing well since I will be getting the expensive 90,000 mile service done under a warranty/breakdown insurance contract for far less than the cost of doing it preventatively. While that takes the sting out of it, I remain frustrated with the fact that, on average, the car seems to have some sort of serious failure every 6 months.
I believe that these cars are overly engineered and rely too heavily on expensive, fragile, computer-controlled systems with too many sensors and other points of failure. I don't think they can withstand more than a few years of regular driving and exposure to typical weather extremes. I have friends with Volkswagens who suffer similarly. I doubt that I would even buy another Audi or a Volkswagen. I had a Honda Accord that ran beautifully despite neglect and abuse for more than 132,000 miles with minimal issues. I had a Nissan Pathfinder that was practical, fun to drive, well-appointed and trouble free. Both vehicles were less expensive to buy, insure, maintain, and repair than the TT that is supposed to be a shining example of German engineering and reliability. Buy a Honda, Toyota, Nissan or anything that is more reliable and less expensive. They may not be as much fun to drive as a working TT but they are more fun to drive than the rental cars that will become a major source of transportation for you if you buy a TT.
I managed to get 30% out of Audi. Costing 3000$ for the repairs in the end. Totally unimpressed by Audi management and the way they handled this case. The top guys at Audi dealership are saying not to buy German cars including Audi. Wish they would have told me that when I pulled out my checkbook.
I wrote a letter to the corporate head quarters and they didnt have the courtesy to respond to my mail. I guess they didnt want to formally acknowledge that they sell a POS product that they cannot stick by. The women called me up from Audi's office and told me explicitly that she would not send a response but that she did receive my letter. I asked her if she knew that the AUDI TT has an "interference" engine and she had NO clue. I am not done with AUDI, but settled for repairs of the car just to close the dilemna in the short term.
This raises a few questions:
-Should I replace the timing belt as soon as I have the money??
-Is it okay to have someone other than an Audi dealer change it?
-Also, on average what can I expect to pay?
Thanks,
Poor [non-permissible content removed] 23 year old college student!
I dont know what it costs when you are proactive and nip the issue in the butt. After the fact, minus the towing charges and inconvenience that it causes you expect to pay anywhere from 2k to 5k.
Good Luck.
My maintenance book clearly states that the belt should be replaced at 105K miles. I don't care what anyone says or what anyone knows, if that is not accurate Audi needs to inform its customers or take responsibility. Why the hell does the book say 105K if the thing breaks at 40, 60 or 90????
It's funny how the Audi rep said that some people decide not to fix the car, and he keeps them and fixes them himself and has a new car! I bet he was hoping I would leave my $42K car up there too. :confuse:
It's a joke. :mad: Never again. I drove my 1989 Jeep Wrangler into the ground for almost 14 years. I never changed a timing chain or belt or hardly anything else for that matter. I abused that truck. I still have the thing sitting on my property. I could have rebuilt the entire truck for less than 6K and driven it another 14 years! To think I put it to pasture in 2002 to get this TT.
In short, I was told the following by Audi USA and the Downtown L.A. dealership - after the fact:
1) All TT timing belts should be replaced every 3 years or 60K miles. The US Owners manual is misprinted and says 105K miles. The Australian owners manual says 100K km. It is a mis-print in the US Owners manual - they didn't convert from metric to US measurements, which would be about 66K miles.
2) The timing belt is composed of rubber - it degrades. Therefore, even if the car is low-mileage, after 3 years, the timing belt should be replaced because moisture, heat stress etc. cause wear and tear and it becomes brittle.
3) As stated above, the engine is an interference engine. It will be destroyed if the timing belt breaks - not a great design but I guess it keeps things fairly compact. So the risk by not changing one's timing belt is an engine that is unusable and costs approx $6500 to repair.
In my case, Audi U.S. paid 50% of the replacement cost for the new engine PARTS, and the repair work was done by the dealership in Houston (Momentum Audi). In my opinion, Audi should have paid all of the labor, and possibly 100% of the parts as well. I had the documentation that the L.A. dealership had done all of my maintenance since I purchased the car.
Now my 2000 TT has a new engine, new brakes, new tires and runs basically good as new - with the exception of a little electrical glitch with my turn signals (at 94,000 miles). I don't see a reason to replace it now...aside from the timing belt, it has been a great car.
After the timing belt was replaced, I asked the mechanic who did the work what the next probable failure would be based on his experience with TTs. He said the manual transmission is the best one Audi makes. So for those of you with tiptronics or automatics, just beware one Audi mechanic doesn't feel those are very reliable over the long term. I have a manual trans, so it provides me some comfort.
I heard rumors of a class action lawsuit back in '06 because of the timing belt. This is quite worthy, as this timing belt problem/owners manual misprint is so prevalent - and Audi only acknowledges it privately on a case-by-case basis.
Frankly, I wouldn't trust any of the timing belts since 2000-2002 without verification from Audi that a) they changed the composition of the rubber timing belt or b) changed the owners manual to correct the 105K mile replacement mis-representation.
I wish I had my point of contact with Audi USA still. I'd post his contact information all over the internet.
Also, I was very happy to get a letter from Audi TT Instrument Settlement Administrator to fix the problems with my instrument panel display. It has been buggy for a while, I will have that fixed as well.
Wish me luck!!
please acknowledge if you are in the same situation.
If you have any info that will help me ,please post it . I have 110,000 miles on it.
Good luck, Sir. I sorry your car broke.
I am certain that had I been alerted, I would have been covered now rather than bearing the expense.
Anyone have any suggestions how to pursue Audi for failing to notify me properly? I have all of 49,000 miles thus far.
I have a 2005 TT and am on the dealership to get accurate condition reports on it. They have told me that it is not the milage but the age of the belt that matters. They have recommended replacing it at the 6 year mark.
I think there was a class action suit in the States regarding the use of milage as an indicator of when the timing belt was to be replaced.
$950 to repair if there's no other damage.
I read about a class action lawsuit but don't recall getting a notice. What are the chances Audi would honor my claim.
Got to admit after reading everything online I had gotten paranoid about even driving the car without having the timing belt checked. Though I had no problems I went ahead and bit it yesterday (3/31/10) and put a new timing belt on mine. Belt was the original and was fine. Could have gone another 10,000 miles easily. Looked like a 10 year old belt but had no signs of possible failure. Cost me $1,050 which included the water pump and all parts. Pump was also fine, plastic impeller was good too, no missing parts. Plastic was used apparently to save weight in the engine.
My Audi guy said it has nothing to do with oil or anything. Said it had alot to do with how the car is driven and how well its been maintained. He said if someone had driven the car hard, it will almost always shorten the belt (and everything else) life. Course, could have been a batch of bad belts manufactured too. He said he has never seen a TT motor sling a belt in 12 years but he has seen the tensioner fail and allow the belt to come off and then cause the problems with timing. My tensioner had just started to show a very small amount of leakage of hydrolic fluid but nothing major. Not bad after 10 years.
He told me too that the primary symptom was a rattle noise or clicking in the passenger side of the engine, near the cooling resevior which is the tensioner beging to relax and fail which will eventually allow the timing belt to flop, dismount and be torn in half. If you hear a rattling/clicking noise on the passener side of the engine, CUT IT OFF and TOW IT to the mechanic and have the belt and tensioner checked.
Also remember that the timing belt is a dry system, oil has no contact with the belt so changing the oil won't make any difference. One more thing, he said belt failure could be caused by someone cheaping out on the gas. If they are filling the fuel tank with 87 octane, you can get back pressure in the chambers and valves that puts ALOT more stress on the belt and especially the tensioner. This will wear the tensioner arm out early and cause preamture failure. Use the 93 octane to extend the belt life, the engine is so small and so tight in there, early compbustion can really stress these little engines.
Bottom line is that its how it was treated and driven. Good gas, driving normal, your belt should go 100,000 but when in doubt, check it, $1g is better than $5-10g's. He also said to be sure and change your fuel filter once a year or every 3 to 4 oil changes, the fuel line is so small and your fuel pump is so small that the filter can clog easily. I change mine on all my vehicles about every 25k to 30k which should be sufficient even on a tt, cost is about $75 to $100 if you let someone do it. My Audi guy worked for a dealship for 10 years so I trust him, take it or leave it...
By the way, read the lawsuit yesterday, and all claims, inspections, etc. dealing the the class action had to have been filed and done by August of 2008. I would still try though, get you an aftermarket warranty if you are worried, that would catch most of the damage if you did have a failure.
Matt, Birmingham, Alabama
I'm hardly ever out with the TT without getting a compliment on the car. I've come to think of it as a piece of road sculpture. Well for a few bucks at esigns.com, one can design a custom magnetic bumper sticker. Normally, wouldn't put a bumper sticker on my car, but I think "Audi SUCKS!" plastered on the back of it would be an appropriate way to tell the world what I think about the treatment I'm getting right now. Just thought I'd pass this along in case anyone else is looking for a creative way to vent.
I talked to 3 different mechanics who said they would not drive the car a long way without investing in the timing belt service. Even with low mileage, these can get brittle and crack over time. So I'm going to make the additional $1,100 investment to have this service done before I drive it back.
Like new, black with baseball optic leather seats. Beautiful! I've owned several Audi and VW cars and while I can't say I'm impressed with cost of ownership, they do know style!
For the money, a shop can do it for probably close to what it will cost you in time, tools, and aggravation. Just my two cents.
This is an old subject, but I wanted to provide an update to make sure the extended warranty under the settlement isn't forgotten. I have a 2001 TT with about 75000 miles. It has been regularly maintained, always at Audi dealers. I had the 80k service done early, a couple of months ago. Much like the other posts here, while driving to work on city streets a couple of weeks ago, it suddenly stopped running. I heard a clicking sound and managed to pull to the shoulder but couldn't get it to restart and thought it was a fuel problem. The car was towed to the Audi dealer that has done the service on it. They diagnosed a timing belt failure and extensive resulting engine damage (they had just inspected the TB in the 80k service but did not recommend changing it then). The cost for all of the repairs would have been about $7k. After doing some research, i found the information on the Audi TB settlement for this year's TT. When I provided the information to the dealer, they couldn't find it, apparently because the settlement is relatively old. I then called Audi of America's customer service center. Mark they was very helpful - he confirmed that I had an extended warranty on the timing belt to 105,000 miles, that Audi would covered all of the costs for the repairs and he provided the warranty information to the dealer. While I know that there aren't that many of these cars still on the road, i want to make sure anyone with a similar problem knows about the extended warranty, since it can save a lot on repairs if you have had it inspected regularly by Audi and the TB then breaks.
I'm debating about purchasing a 2001 Audi tt with about 70,000 miles on it, and after hearing about the timing belt problems I would definitely replace the belt immediately after buying it. However, the car is in South Carolina and I am located in Oklahoma, so I would already be putting another 900 miles on it before being able to change the belt. The car has never had any major problems and has been regularly maintained, but I'm not quite sure if I should take it. Any advice?
After what I have read, it sounds like I am looking at a time bomb. I see there are several aftermarket companies sell belt kits (belts, pulleys, ect). Any recommendations or stick with OEM (or just walk away).
Thanx.