I'm I getting ripped?

[quk@isham-research.demon.co.uk (Phil Payne)]

In message <0716D052C1CFD0119D280060979FBE9A0D5F6B@a1.matrix.com.pl> Aleksander Mierzwa writes:

> $60 seems a cheap price for a timing belt job. Does your mechanic have
> any prior experience with Audis? Because I don't quite understand what
> did he mean when he said that "the large bolt would not come loose". I
> suspect he didn't realise that it is necessary to remove the crankshaft
> bolt to remove the timing belt on 5cyl Audi engine, that's why he rised
> the price in the process.

If he didn't know _this_ (and NOBODY can change an I5 belt for $60) then it 
would be a cold day in hell before I'd let him take _my_ engine apart to look 
for a 'tick'.

(Lifters don't 'tick', BTW, they 'rattle'.  Exhaust manifolds and vacuum pumps 
'tick'.)

> On my car they sometimes tick like h*ll for no apparent reason when the
> engine is hot, but this doesn't happen often, so I assume there's no need to
> replace them - yet ;-)

Try leaving the engine to drain overnight when you do your next oil change -
or spin it on the starter with the ignition coil earthed and the fuel pump 
relay out.  Clears the old thin oil out of the lifters.  You can get an even 
better effect by running for a week or so with an oil filter that doesn't have 
an anti-drainback valve - the oil in the lifters then gets changed every night 
for fresh oil from the sump.
 
Then replace the filter with a proper one.

Lifters are around GBP12.50 each in the UK.

-- 
 Phil Payne
 Committee Member, UK Audi [ur-]quattro Owners Club