tragopan86

My 86 5000TS just turned over 200K miles, and I read that the timing belt should be replaced every 30K miles. No real history on this car. Also read that at the time you change the timing belt you should also change the waterpump and the belttensioner. Are all these things I should seriously think about doing soon?

RussB

The turbo engine is an interference motor. If the timing belt breaks, valves will bend. There's so much labor involved in changing the belt, that while you've got access to it, you may as well change the water pump (which is equally difficult to access) and the belt tensioner (not always necessary, but similar reasoning).

30k miles between replacement sounds awfully frequent to me. (I tend to think of timing belt changes as a 60K mile thing.) I will defer to the experts here.

elToro

But can be pushed out to 75K or 100K if you want to risk it. 30K is too soon.

Here is a friend of mine with an A4 who waited until 75K when his water pump broke, taking out his timing belt:
<A href="http://images.stagonline.org/john">John's A4</a>

Total cost: $1600 (just parts, he and I are doing the labor ourselves)

TPW

When I replaced the timing and roller, and water pump on my 5kqt, I wished I had also replaced the front crank seal. Now it leaks and I will have to do most of the labor again just to change it.

tragopan86

I think when I do the belt I will do the seal and the w/p as well. I downloaded the sjmautotechnik.com instructions and have read enough threads on this site to get the lowdown. Never did one before, a belt that is. The camgear bolt sounds like a headache. I am hopefully going to find a way to use the special tools. Would like to rent or borrow them. It sounds like no one on this site has bothered to use them though!