RE: Timing Belt woes - 91 V8 5sp.

[Aleksander Mierzwa <alex@matrix.com.pl>]

Jim wrote:

     >About a year ago several of you were nice enough to confirm that I
got 
     >a good deal on 1991 V8 5 Speed. You were also *WISE* enough to 
     >recommend that I change the timing belt as a precaution, since the
car 
     >had 72k miles on it. Well, I listened to the used car salesmanger
who 
     >told me to ignore your good words since "timing belts are good for

     >120k". 

No timing belt in the world is able to safely withstand 120k miles of
use. When first V8s were introduced, Audi specified that the timing belt
should be renewed every 90k miles. Multiple accidents of timing belt
failure before 90k miles caused Audi to lower this number to 60k miles,
which should be safe. I would go for the 50k miles interval for peace of
mind. 

     >My options as I see them are:
     >
     >- Spend the $5,000 and let the dealer repair the car and continue
to 
     >enjoy the best in German engineering until I or the car expire.

If something serious breaks on the V8 it usually means $$$$, but wait
until they pull the heads and actually _see_ what needs to be fixed.

     >- Locate another V8 engine and drop it in - estimated repair
$3,500 to 
     >$5,000

Not a bad idea, this would get your car running soon and you can always
rebuild and sell the old engine.

     >- Sell the car to the dealer for "something under $10k".

That's what they want you to do. They'll buy your car cheap, repair it
and sell with large profit. For them the labour is free, but you have to
pay for it, so maybe it's not a bad idea... personally, I wouldn't leave
my baby stranded after a hearth attack, though ;-)

     >- Fix the car and sell it- I would like to get something under 
     >warranty.

I don't intend to insult you, Jim and I understand you have the right to
feel nervous about whole thing, but the car broke because you neglected
one of the basic maintenance items. Care for your car and you won't need
the warranty.

Aleksander Mierzwa
Warsaw, Poland
mailto:alex@matrix.com.pl
87 Audi 5000CS turbo (mine)
88 Renault Medallion wagon (mom's)
91 mountain bike (just in case both cars broke at the same time :-)