2.0 Tfsi Different Cambelt Interval In Germany + Us !!!!

[brasiliangringo]

Per title, i noticed the manual in the car says around 110 000 miles, yet Audi UK, Milton Keynes now advise 4 years or 60 000 miles for some premature reason, HOWEVER, the US is still the same (around the 110 000 mile mark) and after an email today from Audi Germany with my VIN, it appears they still advise 180 000 KMs or 112k miles !!!!

Audi UK trying to make more money me thinks !!! Call me cynical..

The email from Audi.de today :

Sehr geehrter Herr ****,vielen Dank fuer Ihre E-Mail.Gerne geben wir Ihnen naehere Informationen zum Zahnriemenwechsel.Der Zahnriemen ist ein Verschleissteil und sollte, damit Schaeden am Fahrzeug vermieden werden, in bestimmten Wechselintervallenausgetauscht werden. Dieses Wechselintervall unterliegt individuellen Einsatzbedingungen und ist auch von der Motorisierung,Betriebsdauer und Laufleistung abhaengig.Aus diesem Grund obliegt es der Werkstatt, eine entsprechende Ueberpruefung des Zahnriemens durchzufuehren. Dies wird bereitsdadurch unterstrichen, dass wir uns vorbehalten, die Empfehlungen im Serviceplan jederzeit zu aendern.Bei Ihrem Audi A4 Cabriolet mit der Fahrzeugidentnummer WAUZZZ************** empfiehlt die AUDI AG den Wechsel des Zahnriemens alle180.000 Kilometer.Bei diesen Angaben handelt es sich lediglich um eine Empfehlung des Herstellers. Angegeben werden damit nicht absoluteMindestwerte zur Haltbarkeit des Zahnriemens.Sehr geehrter Herr Ross, bei weiteren Fragen oder Wuenschen sind wir - ebenso wie Ihr Audi Partner - gerne wieder fuer Sie da.Freundliche Gruesse

 

[rum4mo]

Well, this mirrors what is suggested, or has been over the past 10 or so years for VAG TDI engines that have cambelts. It does not inspire any confidence in the VAG gang if this info has become territory dependant. Better safe than sorry I'd reckon, and as some VAG UK dealers workshops say "different parts fitted to UK models" - and the moon is made of cheese!

 

[brasiliangringo]

In my (trade) experience, the parts i buy from TPS (VAG Franchise for selling parts) are made in Germany or need to be ordered from there in the event of it not being on the shelf in Milton Keynes, so do not believe they drink from a different font in .de.

 

[Bristle Hound]

Sorry to be pedantic but ... The 2.0 TFSI engines have camchains not a cambelt

I found this out when I took my 5 year old 25000 mile A4 2.0 TFSI to my local Audi Stealers for a cambelt/tensioner/water pump change on its 5th birthday

Was told, like the Op & the manual info, 'that the camchain needs replacing at 112,000 miles & it doesn't have a cambelt, it has a camchain sir'

Saved myself £600+ so,was quite happy

 

[brasiliangringo]

Not quite correct, pre 2009 the TFSI have cam belts, ie 04' - 08' 1.8 and 2.0

 

[brasiliangringo]

And just to avoid confusion, the VIN i used was from a 2008 with a cambelt.

 

[rum4mo]

In my (trade) experience, the parts i buy from TPS (VAG Franchise for selling parts) are made in Germany or need to be ordered from there in the event of it not being on the shelf in Milton Keynes, so do not believe they drink from a different font in .de.

Exactly, but are you claiming that the moon is not made of cheese?(surely not!)
Anyway, when I imported a B5 Passat 4Motion from Bruunson NL in 2000, my VW main dealer told me that as it was built in Germany it would have been built from completely different parts from one destined for UK market by VW-UK. What a load of jobbies, they said that I needed a complete new dash pod as some options had not been coded in for UK "expectations" - £2000+ please, I bought VAG-COM for about £200 and achieved the same end result. Mind you, the fancy trim bits, well at least some of them, were made in UK!

 

[brasiliangringo]

Incredible they had the gall to tell you that and one up for you Vs them getting it sorted !! I am tempted to write a letter to Autoexpress or a similar motoring journal (but they are probably in the manufactures pockets lol) and ask them to write a story on it as i would love someome to step forward and give an official reason Pigs might fly..

 

[rum4mo]

VAG-UK always have the customer's interest at heart, so if the TDI engines needed new cambelt etc at 4 years 60K miles, they just thought that it would save confusing petrol customers if they said the same to them, thanks VAG-UK. Similarly they use the same oil for short and long service periods as that too might cause confusion - they are so thoughtful?

 

[beemerboy9]

Per title, i noticed the manual in the car says around 110 000 miles, yet Audi UK, Milton Keynes now advise 4 years or 60 000 miles for some premature reason, HOWEVER, the US is still the same (around the 110 000 mile mark) and after an email today from Audi Germany with my VIN, it appears they still advise 180 000 KMs or 112k miles !!!!

Audi UK trying to make more money me thinks !!! Call me cynical..

The email from Audi.de today :

Sehr geehrter Herr ****,vielen Dank fuer Ihre E-Mail.Gerne geben wir Ihnen naehere Informationen zum Zahnriemenwechsel.Der Zahnriemen ist ein Verschleissteil und sollte, damit Schaeden am Fahrzeug vermieden werden, in bestimmten Wechselintervallenausgetauscht werden. Dieses Wechselintervall unterliegt individuellen Einsatzbedingungen und ist auch von der Motorisierung,Betriebsdauer und Laufleistung abhaengig.Aus diesem Grund obliegt es der Werkstatt, eine entsprechende Ueberpruefung des Zahnriemens durchzufuehren. Dies wird bereitsdadurch unterstrichen, dass wir uns vorbehalten, die Empfehlungen im Serviceplan jederzeit zu aendern.Bei Ihrem Audi A4 Cabriolet mit der Fahrzeugidentnummer WAUZZZ************** empfiehlt die AUDI AG den Wechsel des Zahnriemens alle180.000 Kilometer.Bei diesen Angaben handelt es sich lediglich um eine Empfehlung des Herstellers. Angegeben werden damit nicht absoluteMindestwerte zur Haltbarkeit des Zahnriemens.Sehr geehrter Herr Ross, bei weiteren Fragen oder Wuenschen sind wir - ebenso wie Ihr Audi Partner - gerne wieder fuer Sie da.Freundliche Gruesse

You might have translated the sentence that I have marked in red - (this recommendation) in no way indicates the absolute minimum service life of the toothed belt.

I take it that the intended life of the belt is 180,000 km but it is not guaranteed. The intended life of a DSG gearbox may be 140,000 miles but that does not mean that every unit will last that long even if it serviced every 40,000 miles. I suppose that if one pays to have the toothed belt regularly inspected (as mentioned in the German wording above) and cleaned that one could be more certain of reaching the intended life.
In the end, because the toothed belt is a wear item (not covered by the warranty??) you need to consider the advice given by your Audi dealer and your own attitude to risk.

I look forward to comments on this reply.

John

 

[brasiliangringo]

Hi John i think the fundamental issue here is Audi.de & Audi.us (with Audi UK under being different ownership as are US Audi if not mistaken) are making hugely varying recommendations about the same products being sold in different markets, which i would think has little to do with the physical limitations of the cambelt itself (in the case of the UK advice). Warranty would not be such an issue unless you are doing more than 60k in the 1st three years and it snapped or you have an extended warranty and it snapped for instance if you failed to replace it after 4.5 years.

 

[beemerboy9]

Hi John i think the fundamental issue here is Audi.de & Audi.us (with Audi UK under being different ownership as are US Audi if not mistaken) are making hugely varying recommendations about the same products being sold in different markets, which i would think has little to do with the physical limitations of the cambelt itself (in the case of the UK advice). Warranty would not be such an issue unless you are doing more than 60k in the 1st three years and it snapped or you have an extended warranty and it snapped for instance if you failed to replace it after 4.5 years.

You are pointing out a valid discrepancy between the various countries and, possibly tongue-in-cheek, a "money-spinner" for Audi UK.

I am not sure that the Audi dealers actually needs such extra work. A local dealer is offering free MOT's for life with a cam-belt change, has not failed to hit its workshop capacity targets for at least 2 years and has to consider opening 24-7 (like Sytner in West London) in order to cope with the projected new car sales in the VAG group. Who needs more cam-belts to change?
Then there is also the point that many 5 year old cars are serviced outside the franchise network using non-Audi pattern parts.

Cam-belts or no, the American customer is treated much better than us in the UK, with huge warranties (10 years??) on the DSG gearbox and another areas. I would dearly love to know the commercial reasoning behind that.


I will leave you to your cynicism.

John

 

[brasiliangringo]

The net effect is it does lead to more servicing revenue whether or not that is the motivation remains unclear, and whilst your anecdotal evidence is no doubt accurate, i conversely (and anecdotally) know of a handful of Audi franchises out there that aren't rushed off their feet with business.

 

[rum4mo]

The US market and its consumer protection is a strange one, sure if they paid over the odds for cars it would make sense, but they don't and get better warranties, is this not just a cunning form of protectionism on the part of USA. Either way, same basic products should receive same basic recommendations for parts that can cause expensive damage. As said, importers into foreign territories mainly have nothing to do with the manufacturers, but why has that lead, in recent times, to Audi, VW, Seat and Skoda offering different advice on items like cambelts on "same" engine models - when things do wrong, this does nothing for customer's confidence.

 

[ub7rm]

A few years ago when I had a mk5 GTI there was a similar 'complaint' on the mk5 forums because the early mk5's had something 120k cam belt intervals which changed to 60k on newer models but Audi's of the same vintage with pretty much exactly the same engine were still on 120k. At least they are being consistent across the VAG range in the UK now.

 

[Crazyfool]

Sorry to be pedantic but ... The 2.0 TFSI engines have camchains not a cambelt

I found this out when I took my 5 year old 25000 mile A4 2.0 TFSI to my local Audi Stealers for a cambelt/tensioner/water pump change on its 5th birthday

Was told, like the Op & the manual info, 'that the camchain needs replacing at 112,000 miles & it doesn't have a cambelt, it has a camchain sir'

Saved myself £600+ so,was quite happy

Just hope it doesn't fail like mine! It cost me £1,200 (after a good will gesture) to repair after the bearings to the flywheel failed. My saving grace was the car was stationary at the time, so it just went into safe mode. I have heard of others that failed whilst on the move...then its £8,000+ for a new engine!!!!