Timing belt broke. Replace belt, engine or sell car?
 

Hi all,

My timing belt broke on new years day (lucky me), on my 2003 A4 1.8T . What sucks is that it had only 100K KM's or so on it. Anyway, I'm told my options are a) straighten the bent valves, gasket, replace belt around $2500 before tax b) replace engine or c) sell car as is and get another one. My car is worth about $6500, 215K KM's on it.

Has anyone else experienced this? What did you do? I'm told by one mechanic that if I just straighten the valves and replace the belt I might still run into other issues. He's currently sourcing some engine prices for me. Thanks for your help.

I will say to wait for another engine..because this kind of engine is very popular and should not be very expensive, also now you can find more and more cars that the owners are parting them out. I dont think you should hurry in a decision and do your own search for engine also. I dont know about straighten the valves and stuff but what I do know is that I dont think you will get those money for the car..the situation sucks..I descovered before Christmas that a bearing from my water pump is broken..now its in the shop. Good luck!

If you have a good indy that you trust and a shop that can rework your head (valves and any other damage), just fixing your head is as good as a used engine, especially since you know the history of the bottom half and turbo on your engine. If you don't have a trustworthy indy and shop that can rework the head (usually different and requires different skill sets), then a new engine would be the better choice becuase the know the history of the rest of the car. obtw, it's not worth $6500 right now :)

Thanks for your help! Does $2500 inclusive sound reasonable for an engine replacement do you think? Hopefully less?

Thank you for your help! What do you suspect the avg cost of my engine replacement would be?

From what I saw on a quick search on ebay (but there are a lot of other places) a 90k miles 1.8 is 2000$ and another one with 72k 2500$. I dont know how much will be shipping and mounting..also search near you for salvage yards, if you live in a big city you will find a couple of them (its gonna be cheaper)

Don't know. Never priced it. I would do as Vali suggested and price some full up engines and depending on your sense of your options, make your decision. Biggest thing that would weigh on me is the unknown of a full engine versus the good bones of the engine you have.

...Or, sell the car for wholesale (not for $6500) and buy another one.

Thanks, so I'm considdring going the route you originally suggested which is straightening the valves/fixing the head. I'm told by my mechanic that it's a risk because we don't know how the lower part of the engine will be though it's unlikely it will be messed up. ANy ideas on that? The head fixing will be considerably cheaper so I'm really considering it. My mechanic is highly reputable and does great work, to top it off I haven't had issues with my engine or turbo in the past outside of the usual crap like blown coils.

I assume he is talking about connecting rods or main bearings. Yeah, a risk, but not generally a problem.

very rarley will you damage the lower end, but you can't straighten the valves, they will need replaced and seated, or if your guy can't do that then get a used Head for $400-500 and a headgasket kit, T-belt kit etc for about another 400 and Labor should be less for a head swap then a engine swap and now you have all new seals and T-Belt. even if you get a used engine you still should do the T-belt. you should be able to get this fixed for $1500 or less, although I know of many shops that charge $2000 and up for this repair