My father just had his 2000 1.8T A4 timing belt inspected at the dealer for his 80k service. Of course, they told him it had cracks and needed to be replaced right away at a cost of $1,400. The car has 83k easy miles.

I have since taken the whole front end off to perform the timing belt service. I was surprised to see that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the timing belt and there are no visible cracks. This dealer's inspection was obviously flawed. The tensioner, rollers, and dampener are all functioning 100% and the bearings spin smoothly. While I was at it, I removed the water pump and inspected the plastic impeller which is also perfectly intact.

Now, I am going to replace all of the parts as preventative maintenance as I realize they have a track record of failures. My point of this posting is that people should be very leery of these dealer inspections as my dealer obviously did not inspect the belt properly or purposely delivered an incorrect diagnosis. That is not right and they are not living up to their part of the class action lawsuit. This engine should have been deemed okay to go to 105k miles.

I am going to write a letter to Audi and send them the damn timing belt to show them that their dealers are not living up to the agreement of the class action lawsuit. That is not right and it is illegal. This belt should have been deemed okay for 105k. I took it off the car and twisted it, turned it, bent it back and forth, and inspected it under a bright light and you cannot find a minute crack anywhere!

Unbelievable.