I have a 1999 Audi A4 1.8 SE (5v). The main dealers say that the cambelt doesn't need to be changed untill 115K miles. The owners handbook backs this up.
This seems very high to me and I'm not sure I should leave it that long. The car currently has done 62K miles.
What do you think I should do?
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Change it, and check all of the rollers for free, smooth movement. This is actually a good drive (22 teeth on the crank if I remember correctly) but don't take chances with this, especially as it is quite an easy one to change. See my thread on "When to change a cambelt".
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A friend had a Golf with a similar engine & similar story ,the belt never made it .Snapped at 95k,& reqd major engine rebuild.Definitely change it soon.
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Definately too much, even though the handbook says so.
Would Audi care to pay for engine repairs if it were to break at 5 years/100,000 miles?
Thought not.
Change at 60K as per the TDi's
--
groups.msn.com/honestjohn - Pictures say a thousand words.....
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Oil, filters and similar plugs all get changed at roughly the same intervals, give or take a few K miles. Why is there no consistency for cambelts? Seems as though it can be anything from 40,000 to your 115,000. How do the manufacturers arrive at their decision?
Where do the cambelts come from that break 30,000m after they were fitted? What do cambelt manufacturers have to say on the matter - and should we believe them?
There needs to be some longevity research on this topic - it is clearly a sea of ignorance and dogma at present. One thing is for sure; the motor industry wants us to spend as much as possible!
[P.S. '94 Passat cambelt 227,000 still going strong - cost of changing more than car is worth!]
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Perhaps cambelts have different recommended change intervals because the loadings on the belt vary between different designs of engine.
A cambelt that also drives a diesel injection pump can be very heavily shock-loaded by the pump and ideally needs to be wider than the equivalent belt on a petrol engine to cope with this. An example I have given before is the Perkins Prima diesel engine where the belt was extra wide (75mm I think), however on other engines there may not be the space to have such a wide belt so a narrower belt with a shorter life may have be fitted, and this will be reflected in the recommended change intervals.
Cambelts which break after 30,000 miles are probably of inferior design or were fitted incorrectly, perhaps with too much tension. A respected belt manufacturer like Gates will usually have been called in by the engine designer to develop a belt suitable for the engine and can be trusted to supply high quality belts to the aftermarket.
My only concern is with the fleet car manufacturers who have a lot to gain by increasing servicing intervals and therefore may recommend belt-change intervals that apply only in perfect conditions, i.e. top quality belt, spot-on tensioning, no oil contamination.
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I certainly agree that Audi are looking to increase the service intervals. There is now a 20k service option for new Audi cars.
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And Toyota are now using a chain instead of a cambelt on they VVTi engines. A chain will last longer, so what are the pro's and con's of a chain?
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I had similar concerns (see thread Audi 100-cambelt-recent post).
I decided to change it after nearly ca 70k.
The old one looked fine ! But too much to risk. I was quoted ca £200 to change by independent but local garage did full 20k service and cambelt for £188 !
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