cam belt gone at 2000rpm

[rambo220]

heya folks,

well first off i have to say that i am brand new to this comunity, you all seem like nice lads (not sure if i have every seen a female s3 owner).

basically this is my dilemma: -

i recently bought and audi s3 2002 225bhp and it had a few miles on it, in fact was around 75k, and i was aware that the cam belt was due a change. with this knowledge i took it to a company in UK called adspeed and while they serviced it asked them to check the cam belt.

I get the report back and they state that the camblet it fine till 105k miles or so, even noted on inspection report.

so anyways 3 weeks and 4000 odd miles down the line it goes while im turning into a friends drive thankfully, i musta been doing about 10-15mph, and bammo. cam belt gone.

i guess my question is what sort of damage am i looking at, at that speed/rpm is it likely the engine is damaged? if so to what entent?


if im being honest i dont know that much about my s3, i mean more then the average car owner would, but not enough so if you guys could fill me in if there is any thing that can be done with the fact that the garage said it was set for another 30 000 miles odd, or with the engine itself.


also i love my car. but would like to know more about how it works so i have some moderate chat if someone grills me about it, any of you guys know any good information sites on the model?

sorry this is a long one, hope some can help. take care all and thanks for taking the time to read.

regards rambo220

 

[larsmate]

Sorry to say it's going to be expensive. Head will have to come off so as to check the integrity of the 20 valves. Even though the car didn't have a lot of inertia at the time, chances are there will be bent valves. Not sure why the UK specifies such a high mileage before changing the cam belt. Here in Australia Audi stipulate 90k kms or 4 years, which ever comes first. This is way sooner than 105k miles. Suggest you have the car delivered back to the garage that gave you the advice and hopefully they will be sympathetic and give you mates rates. Bummer!

 

[rambo220]

thanks for the pointers mate, been reading up on it, doesnt sound like fun at all,

/signs off 2 months pay.

could be worse, i could have a crap car

 

[mattm]

As im sure others will say, if you're going to get the work done and spend ££££, i.e head off etc then it would be rude not to upgrade the parts whilst you're there lol

 

[benr]

i would be seriously complaining to the garage who advised you and they may give you good rates...

im not very knowledgable on these things but as far as i know there is no way of checking that the cambelt has at lease 3k left... the only way of checking is by checking the history of the car and cambelt changed. If they/you knew iit was not done i dont see where they got 105k

Good luck

 

[yellowgti]

i would take it back to the garage stating you were going have it changed until they said it was ok for another 30.000 so therefore they got to fix it for price that they would have, its there problem not yours, sorry to hear that your engines ******, bit... like matt says this must mean its time to upgrade while its stripped down? id say best part of £1200-£1300, it doesnt matter how fast you are going when it snappes, snapping is snapping andthats it, some cars you can put a belt on and hey presto but surely this never happens to people like us?

 

[Jacko4130]

When mine snapped at 80k it needed a new head, cost over 2k. Just wanna hope yours is a cheaper fix.

 

[Nilz]

I had mine changed as soon as i got my car and i got it with 60k on it if i remember correctly.

As already mentioned, take it back to the garage where you were going to get it done.

You need to tell them that you went on their recommendation that it would be ok, and as a 'trusted' engineer you went with their judgement however thats not true, and im pretty sure Audi/VW released a statement that it needs to be less than what they originally stated.


See what they say and see if they can do anything for you, as this is going to cost BIIIG money!!

 

[AndyMac]

Cambelt change is every 80k miles or 4 years whichever comes sooner, so the garage you took it to don't know ****. Even if they thought the mileage was OK (as there is some confusion over miles or Km's) they should still have done it based on age.

 

[Aky]

That was the first thing I changed on my motor. Mine had only done 40k but was coming up to 6 years old so did it as a precaution.

Good luck getting it fixed. Can't beleive a garage told you 105k. I bet it hasn't been changed since new.

I thought it was 40k/60k miles or 6 years, so a 2002 car was well overdue.

 

[jojo]

Hope you get it sorted soon, I doubt you would get anything back from the garage who gave you the advice.

Cambelt change is every 80k miles or 4 years whichever comes sooner, so the garage you took it to don't know ****. Even if they thought the mileage was OK (as there is some confusion over miles or Km's) they should still have done it based on age.

I would stick to 60k miles or 5 years(whichever comes first) for the 1.8T, 80k miles is too much in my opinion, I've read a few threads where the cambelt has let go between 70-80k miles, but you make a judgement call really... if at the end of the day you think you need your belt changed, just do it for piece of mind, at least it secures your investment for the next 5years/60k miles!

 

[jim s3]

i was quoted a grand when mine went so ended up spending alot more on a bt

 

[Clach]

Ouch...you may get lucky, but either way my advice is to get a garage or person who knows what they are talking about to have a look. I suggest a VAG specialist, and if you are going to upgrade internal parts (may as well)then go for a garage than specialises in after market mods. (look on here, and mention that you got their name from Audi-sport). This should give you some bargaining power in a bad situation. All this info. combined they may give you a good rate.

As for the offending garage, I find that a well worded letter, with the cam belt note (photocopy), gets the ball in your court first..Do this sooner rather than later

Good luck..

 

[rambo220]

ok well i got in touch with the garage and had the mechanic apologize profusely. he wants to see the damage for himself to feed his curiosity, and said he would fix it at cost, reasonable enough

thanks for all those that posted with helpful advise, might swap out the k03 for a k04 while the hoods up aswell

again, thanks all.

 

[666markyboy]

should allready be a K04