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Catastrophic engine failure 59 miles after timing belt replacement
At 120,296 miles, I took my car to the dealership for a recall on the passenger airbag. I asked them to replace the timing belt while it was there, thinking that the dealership was a good place to do work like that. They charged $1,631.57 + tax (over $330 more than they quoted me on the phone), and replaced all the parts that the timing belt touches (see photo showing parts list). They returned the car to me on April 3rd, 2018.
At 7:12 am the next day, April 4th, 2018, having heard strange clacking sounds coming from the engine, I texted the service advisor at the dealership: "Since getting [my car] back, the engine sounds very different. It has a lot of strange clacking sounds. Is that normal with a new timing belt?" He responded, "The engine will sounds different. The timing belt, tensioners and rollers were all replaced. If the noise continues to get worse please let me know."
On April 5th, roughly 48 hours after getting the car back, my wife took the car on an extended freeway drive for the first time since the timing belt replacement. Half-way to her destination, at 120,455 miles (59 miles after getting the new timing belt), a yellow warning light came on (and maybe flashed; EPC? EPS?) and almost immediately the engine quietly and completely died. She coasted the car over three lanes of traffic, with people honking at her, to get to the safety of the shoulder.
We paid $170 to get the car towed back to the dealership and my wife took a $50 Uber ride to her appointment. The next day (April 6th) the service advisor texted me, “The high pressure fuel pump failed, which caused the timing chain to jump, which damaged the intake valves in the engine.” The dealership quoted $5,747.61 to replace the “engine cylinder head, mechanical high pressure fuel pump, cam follower, head gasket, valve cover gasket & all retainer bolts, head bolts (recommend cylinder hear remove [to check] for no other damage to engine block/pistons.)
After a lot of discussion with them, I was not convinced by their explanation. I suspected that they might have modified the engine to cover their tracks. I had the car towed to an independent repair shop on April 10th. The independent technician didn’t believe the story from the dealership and said that it was not possible for anything coming off the end of the high pressure fuel pump to disrupt the timing enough to cause the intake valves to get bent, especially without snapping the camshaft or the timing belt (the belt was intact). He said that the engine would just chew anything like that up. While there I took pictures of the broken cam follower and the end of the high pressure fuel pump piston (see below). The dealership gave me the car with those components removed from the engine.
I went to back to the dealership and talked with the service manager. This was a different manager to the one who was on-shift when the problems occurred. I explained the situation and he offered to pay for the car to be towed back so that they could investigate further. The service manager took the receipts and promised that the dealership will refund me for the tow truck both to and from the independent repair shop. They also gave me a loaner car again. The service manager said that if they discovered that the damage was their fault then they would pay for it, but if not, they would do their best to help me out by somehow splitting the cost.
The dealership took the back cover off the cam box and sent me photos of what they claim to have found (see below). The service manager texted me on April 11th, “It was the end of the fuel pump that came off and caused the timing chain to jam and broke the bolt and gear off the end of the camshaft. So like we talked about, the intake cam remained stationary while the rest of the engine was spinning. I am working up a parts list currently and should have that prepared for you tomorrow.”
I have not yet received a quote from them, and I intend to go there tomorrow (April 13th), with a friend who knows a lot more about cars than me, to talk with them about all of this. On Facebook, people generally have been telling me that the dealership made a mistake, by not doing the timing belt work properly, and/or not investigating the clacking I reported, and/or not checking the cam follower during the (free) “world-class comprehensive” inspection they performed while replacing the timing belt. People have suggested reporting the dealership to the DMV and the Bureau of Automotive Repair.
I don’t want to report them and get them in trouble if it’s really not their fault. On the other hand, I have suspected them of covering their tracks and/or not being fully honest with me. So I don’t know if I can trust them. Can anyone here give me a clear an unbiased assessment? I want to know if the claimed failure mode is really possible and thoughts on the probability of this happening so soon after the timing belt repair. I’m trying to get clarity on how to proceed with this.
Parts and cost of timing belt service.
Cam follower. I took this photo of the part that the dealership gave me when I collected the car.
End of high pressure fuel pump piston. I took this photo of the part that the dealership gave me when I collected the car.
I took this photo of the cam lobe that drives the high pressure fuel pump.
The chain that drives the intake cam from the exhaust cam. The dealership sent this photo to me after taking the back off the cam box.
"Round piece is that retainer from the fuel pump." The dealership sent this photo to me after taking the back off the cam box.
"Broken bolt in the end of the camshaft." The dealership sent this photo to me after taking the back off the cam box.
"Another piece of debris looks like part of a clip from the pump." The dealership sent this photo to me after taking the back off the cam box.
This is not the dealers fault- in no way related to the timing belt change. In addition, it’s not their responsibility to inspect the cam follower as part of replacing your timing belt. This is a common issue with on older A4s and a pure coincidence it failed shortly after the work they did.
Your only hope is to request they ask Audi to contribute to this failure as a good-will.. which they likely won’t.
Because I’ve been to busy to do it myself, I recently had a local VW specialist small shop replace the timing belt/water pump on my ‘08 A4 for $390 (I provided the parts which cost me $144). It blows me away someone would pay $1600+ (Or even $1300) to have a stealership change a timing belt..wow..
With 120k miles I wouldn’t waste my time spending another $5700 to get it running..time to move on ..sell it as is.
Sorry to hear about your engine issues. What year is your Audi? The broken cam follower certainly could have been the thing that triggered the issue. There was a recall in the early years for cam follower issues. You could try asking Audi to see if that had ever been replaced; might provide you with some leverage to have Audi split the cost with you but unfortunately the cam follower is one of things that B7 owners have had to be rather wary of and been checking at relatively frequent intervals.
I know this can happen , because I happened to me. follower gets punched through, breaks tip off pump, steel tip gets caught in chain and blamo.
My concern would be any Audi tech absolutely knows this is a huge issue on the B4. a little bit of conscienscousness ( if that's a word) during any b7 inspection would include checking that follower. He could have made a few extra bucks for the dealership and in addition saved your entire car.
that lack of forsite has created pain for all parties now.
interesting to note . I have a few buddies with b7s and when I offer to check the follower for them ( for free ) 3 of the 5 have been punched through and they are driving around with the tip on the cam and they don't even know it.
04-12-2018, 03:49 PM
Catastrophic engine failure 59 miles after timing belt replacement
