audisnob

Hi I'm a new member. My car only has 45,000 miles on it but I was told I should get a new timing belt. A dealer gave me a price quote of $1,700. Do you guys think it's a good idea to get it done now and is that a good price?

jseklund

Yes, I think it is a good idea to get it done now if it has never been done. You are right that 45,000 is less than the 70,000 I usually stick to, but your car is now almost 12 years old and parts go bad even when they aren't being used. Since you don't know exactly how well the car was maintained, this will give you a good baseline starting point for this major piece of maintenance. If a pulley or tensioner goes bad and breaks your timing belt, it will ruin your engine so it isn't merely philosophical when you do this maintenance.

You can probably find an independent guy that will do it cheaper. I would make sure all pulleys, tensioners, etc. are replaced. It's also a good time to replace cam seals and plugs and valve cover seals.

If you do it yourself, you can do all of the above for around $500 including the tools you would need to buy. The job usually takes me 10-15 hours depending on how smoothly things go and how fast I am trying to move.

audisnob

Thanks for your fast reply and advice jseklund. I'm the original owner and the car and it's in very good condition even though it's always been outside in New England weather. The dealer just did the 40,000 mile service and gave the car a thorough inspection. They gave me a long list of things they said I should have done. They quoted me a price of $850. for a brake job which I thought was also high.

jseklund

$850 for a brake job is a bit high- but if it is front and back you are probably looking at about $400-500 in parts if everything goes well and you use top quality stuff. You may save $100 for good quality stuff. 2-3 hours of labor for front and back combined and a bleed.

Brakes are fairly easy to do yourself - timing belt is a lot more involved.

SloopJohnB@mac.com

ECS tuning has a special on rotors/pads front and rear….around $500+. The rear brake caliper is push/turn to retract the caliper so it's special too you can generally rent from auto zone or advance.

Just Me

by mileage you should do the belt at 75k or so, btu it is 14 years old.....

$1700 on a 4.2 is fair.

G

Just Me

define brake job. For 4 wheels, pads and rotors, its very fair.

For less, its very high.

I think everything is high since i do tons of brake work ( i race).

G

SloopJohnB@mac.com

Yes..seems fair to pay someone that much to do 4 wheels. FWIW, the warranty cost of a 2k4.2A6 brake job was close to $1600 in 2003-4 when our A6 got it's first brake job under the 4/50K warranty Audi had at the time. I thought 32K miles was ridiculous for all four rotors and pads (my M3 did over 65K miles and then only pads!) but even more ridiculous when I saw what Audi paid the dealer! Kind of explains why brake pads and rotors are no longer part of the Audi Experience….YOU pay for brake bits now on a new Audi.

GTA_Driver

Is that for just one set of brakes (front or rear, but not both), or for all four wheels? For all 4 wheels, if it includes parts and labour, that's an excellent price.

If just 2 wheels, then go elsewhere.

When your Audi gets older, it is best to find a good independent shop that specializes in Audis. The timing belt there will run you about $1100, and brakes about $500.