Water pump, timing belt and potentially bent valves
 

This weekend I was driving from Vegas to San Diego when my 2004 1.8T A4 (95k miles) died in the middle of the highway at 70m/hr. I pulled over to the side of the road and notice all the radiator fluid was rapidly leaking out. The car would not start. I took it to the closest mechanic. We both guessed the water pump had died.

Upon closer inspection of the timing belt area it seems as the water pump broke in such a way that the may have locked the timing belt and cause the engine to mistime. I noticed a lot of rubber residue around the belt and crankshaft. The mechanic told me that it's likely that valves may have been bent inside the engine.

He estimated around $800-$1000 to replace the pump and timing belt. I have no idea what it would cost to fix the bent valves or how to even figure out if there are internal engine issues. The majority of this cost is labor from having to pull out the whole front of the car.

At this point I am at a loss, I am not sure if I want to spend $1000 to get the pump and belt replaced only to find out the engine needs to be rebuilt or worse. The car is otherwise in a really nice shape, new tires, fully loaded

Is there any other way to find out if there is internal damage? Does any of this sound reasonable? The fact that the engine won't turn tells me the pump is still locked.

How many miles did you have on the timing belt?? When they are done most everyone does the thermostat and water pump at the same time.

Good guess that there is damage. One really needs to pull the heads to tell if there is damage since putting in a new belt will not change anything and a waste if the valves did hit the pistons.

(if you mean the engine will not turn when one is trying to rotate the crank - which is a no no unless one really knows what they are doing as turning the engine over with a broken timing belt will cause damage for sure)

Yeah, if the water pump seized busting the belt with the engine spinning at 3K, you bent pistons and valves. Not sure, but I think a "top-end" will run 2K or 3K to fix. By "top-end", I am referring to removing the head, replacing pistons and valves, and whatever else you discover along the way.