Does my 2005 Audi Avant require a cam belt change at 115,000 miles or at 75,000 miles?
I have a 2005 Audi Avant A4 2.0T petrol, having on your advice changed from diesels as I now do much less mileage. I have owned it for two and a half years and the service handbook indicates a cam belt change at 115,000 miles. As you know, diesels are usually at around 70,000 for this work. At the last service I changed from Audi's Long Life Service intervals to an annual Inspection Service. On booking a service now with the Audi agent, I'm told that it will require a cam belt change as Audi now applies a mileage of 75,000 miles for all engines. I wonder if you have heard of this?
It is much earlier than it says in the service book. The car has done 86,600 miles so no harm will be done by changing the cam belt. But if Audi has now changed its policy - and I have received no notification - shouldn't Audi contribute in some way to a cost incurred much earlier than expected?
It needs the belt. Actually VAG had a problem with 1.4 and 1.6 16v engines because, after watching belts flying off Opel engines in the 1990s because Opel fitted plastic timing belt pulleys that failed, VAG inexplicably went and did exactly the same thing. All these engines needed new belts and pulleys before 40,000 miles but, rather than admit that the problem was confined to 1.4s and 1.6s 16vs, VAG issued an edict that all belts had to be changed at 40,000 miles or four years, whichever came first. I have not heard of 75,000 miles, though it does make sense for the engine in your car. VAG 1.2 TSI engines, 1.4 and 1.6 FSIs, 1.4TSIs, 1.8TSIs and later EA888 2.0TSI engines are all now chain cam so there's no need for this extra expense on any of them.
Answered by Honest John on
