EuroXS4

I do agree with Jason that doing a timing belt job isnt for everyone unless you know what your doing.If you dont,then dont bother cause these cars are very unforgiving and all of the engines audi uses are interference engines.So you have to know what you doing.Something as simple as over tensioning a timing belt can cause it to wear prematurely and fail.

skibrian213

If it were off by 3 degrees I don't think it would have lasted 40k miles. I think it would have cratered the engine about the first time it was driven, no? Either that or run very poorly. I think with some prior experience, attention to detail, common sense and the right tools, you don't have to be a rocket scientist or a mechanic to change a TB

donromani

I had a shop change the TB at 100k, two days later the bolt on the tensioner sheared. Now, these guys are literally across the street from the Audi dealership and they use only OEM parts regardless, so when they told me that the tensioner was an OEM part from the dealership I had no reason to think they were lying.

They ended up doing $4000 dollars worth of work to repair my damaged valves, etc, for free because of a bad bolt that cost maybe 10 bucks. The point is: these things happen, even with OEM parts.

I'm not trying to troll this thread, but if you do your own wrenching then you assume the burden of liability for the things that go wrong. That includes proving that damage that occurs following DIY jobs is the result of component failure and not human error. Obviously, this is huge headache when thousands of dollars worth of repair costs are on the line because no business in their right mind will ever write you a check for 4 grand because of your say-so alone.

Sticking to OEM will reduce the risk that things go wrong, but it is far from a guarantee, and quite honestly, there's plenty of room for improvement with a lot of the OEM equipment on this car. Remember the Bosch MAF, the original spider-hose, those damn tie-rod ends? At the end of the day you've got to weigh the savings of doing your own TB against the potential of wrecking your motor. Shops are insured for this kind of thing, so if you're not 100% comfortable with the fact that a TB job can turn into a monster valve-train job then DO NOT DO YOUR OWN TB.

As far as ECS tuning: I've dropped thousands of dollars with them and many other vendors, and ECS never struck me as crooked or unconcerned with customer satisfaction. Not to mention, they almost always have OEM as well as aftermarket options for stock components, so don't blame them if you don't order the OEM stuff (this is not specifically directed to any poster in this thread).