[V8] timing belts

[Roger Woodbury]

I am surprised that mega people haven't said this.

Originally when introduced, the V8 timing belt service interval was 90,000
miles.  But Audi replaced a bunch of engines in the 1989 and 90 V8's and
dropped the interval to 60,000.  

When the 4.2 litre engine was introduced in 1992, Audi changed the interval
for the larger engine to 75,000 miles.

But it is also supposedly written somewhere that there is a time element
too, and that time element is 5 years.

In my "new" '90 V8, when we pulled the covers we discovered that the timing
belt looked fine.  That meant that the timing belt was 18 years old and had
accumulated around 62,000 miles.  While it looked fine, it was obviously old
and rubbery.  The mechanic and I agreed that an immediate replacement was
needed, and performed. We were not concerned about the belt braking, but
were concerned that it might be getting "rubbery" enough to jump a cog or
two.

Roger

P.S.  All this discussion about five speeds has made me think that I need to
drive a five speed some day.  Never have driven a five speed V8....but then,
musing about this last night made me think that I would really like to find
that very nice '91 Avant and have another one of those.  Either way, my wife
would kill me. She has already informed me that in our new home the garage
will NOT be larger than her kitchen....