As you know, I believe the Audi A4 owner's manual recommends changing the timing belt at 60,000 miles. . I also thought this was rather low considering all the advances in automotive technology over the past 20 years. Ford has been designing their cars for 100,000 miles for the past 10 years of so, so I couldn't imagine that Audi couldn't find a timing belt that would at least last that long.

In my latest subscription to Autoworld, an Auto Insdustry Magazine, I notice an ad for a Timing Belt supplier company with a picture of an A4 in the add. Bingo, I thought, I just found the Audi A4 timing belt supplier (this is not 100% confirmed, but one can suppose that any company that would feature the A4 so prominently in the add is most likely the supplier). The company is called Gates Rubber Company. They advertise new timing belt technology that will last 200,000 miles. I went to www.gates.com and sure enough they have a downloadable guide about when you should change your timing belt.

I downloaded the guide and it lists that the A4 timing belt should be changed at 90,000 miles. In addition any car in the guide with an asterisk * next to it is a car with an interference valve train design. What that means is that if you timing belt goes the pistons start slamming into the valves (see this Tech article). Major $$$$ to fix. Some cars are free running where if the timing belt goes (e.g. Ford Escort) your engine dies, you get stuck on the side of the road, but there is no major engine damage. Change the build and your car is fixed. Anyway, I thought this info would be useful to other A4 owners as a Tech Item under engines. The timing belt guide also includes info about other Audi models.