Timing belt job suddenly needed at 126k
 

Initially, I was getting a strange high pitched noise and a rubber burning smell under the hood from time to time, particularly when it was cold out. But it didn't happen often and was very difficult to tell where it came from.

Today, however, I started getting a strange intermittent scraping/rattling noise from the drive belt area, even when the car was idling in park. The smell had suddenly became much more pronounced too. It still would come and go, but now I can show it to someone. No CEL, of course.

So I bring the car to the local repair shop right away. We thought it was the drive belt tensioner or alternator at first and he ordered the part. However, after trying it out, I am told that, no, this didn't help, it is the timing belt tensioner itself and the timing belt is getting scraped up. So, I need to do a whole timing belt job to fix this or the timing belt will snap soon (not a good scenario). I actually even looked at the TB just 3 weeks ago and it seemed just fine.

Okay, is this at all possible, does this make sense? What other hard-to-reach items should be changed with the TB?

new thermostat is one item that you will not want to forget to do on the 30V...
 

Front main seal, Water pump, all rollers & tensioners and I'd do a new serpentine belt and tensioner too.

Front main seal? This I don't know; the others I figured out already

30v? Makes perfect sense to me. Idler is shot.
 

It has been posted many times here that timing belts rarely break on their own; something else goes and takes them out.

Do the belt, tensioner (from Audi) tensioner roller, idler, waterpump, t-stat, serp belt, crank seal, cam seals (4), cam adjuster seals (2) and cam plugs (2). You'll need to buy VCG's too.

What did I miss?

I usually do the serp belt tensioner, too.

I don't. But it's cheap enough versus the effort of service position. Next time.

grab a snub too while you're at it.

Make sure you buy the kit from Axis.
 

And make sure it has, and your guy replaces, the tensioner arm.

a comment...
 

Unless you can document or assure that the bolts were torqued to factory spec, you might consider a doing the job over. For me,it depends alot on if the timing belt was getting over tensioned. If so, this can really shorten bearing/component life. The details really matter with these engines.
Regards

Well, I'm not doing this job myself, so I don't have control over everything
 

I took a look at the belt on the car tonight (yes, 30V), the outside edge of the belt is rough and there are belt shavings on the belt. It seems indeed like the idler is the problem, and I would not be surprised if whoever did this job last did not have the right tools and over-tensioned as you suggested (I've long suspected timing belt wasn't changed correctly on this car).

I will mention these comments to my mechanic in the morning when he starts working on the car. However, I can't be too much of a nuisance telling him too much about how to do his job (the mechanics here reading this should understand what I'm talking about), but I will mention these as mistakes people have done which might have caused this to happen and which we don't want to repeat...

Thanks for all your help... now onto getting it done right!