gasperdn

So, my 2000 A8 looks like it is officially dead. I am now looking at a 2002-2003 A8. I have seen a couple of nice ones, but I am a little leery of the whole timing belt issue. I found a real nice looking 02 A8L with 90,000 miles on it. It is from a privately owned dealership, but the guy bought it from an auction in Pennsylvania, and he does not have any history of maintenance on the car. CarFax does not show any history of a timing belt change on it either. My question to all my fellow A8 owners is, would the best way to find out if the timing belt was done is to call the original dealer and ask them?? Or could I call a local dealer, and give them the VIN and see if they can look it up? I almost want to say that this car does not have the timing belt done on it because it has not reached the 100,000 mile mark that Audi recommends. Thank for all your input!

silverd2

If a local dealer can not find it in their records and it has less than 100K miles, it probably has not been done. It's nearly impossible to determine by inspection...100K mile belts often look and feel like new, unless you can find a totally undamaged brand stamp on the belt and very sharp edges on the teeth.

If in doubt, change it for peace of mind. Carfax rarely helps in these cases...the only thing they are good for is a record of odometer readings recorded officially. When it comes to major maintenance, their records are hit-n-miss...even for major accidents. I have personal experience with that.

AutoCheck is a much more dependable record keeping service than Carfax...but both depend on everyone (including their own employees) doing their job perfectly....humans.

gasperdn

Yeah, I pretty much assumed It had no timing belt change done on it. I might see if the guy will go down about $1500 or so on it, and if not I will keep on looking.

Road King

Just curious, how did your A8 die?

With regards to the timing belt, is there any way to determine the previous owner from whatever documentation you do have?

gasperdn

I am not sure how it died, It starts up when you put your hand over air intake hose, but when you put everything back together it shuts off immediately. I have tested it by putting in a new MAF sensor and it does the same thing. I have not had the time to mess with, and have not really looked at it in about 2 weeks. On this 2002, there is no documentation that the timing belt has been done, so I am assuming that it has not been since it only has 90,000 miles on it. I am looking at a couple of 01's that have had the timing belt done on it recently, and they do have documentations on them.