Hi everyone,

I am new here and was hoping to get some advice. I will try and keep it short

I had my water pump replaced on the 12th of August

on the 21st of August, my car was not starting in the morning.

Towed to Audi and have found out today a timing belt tensioner has snapped. Told they need to take the cylinder head off to see if there is any further damage, quoted £700+ for the work! 

The gentleman mentioned that he will speak to his manager and Audi to see what they can do as my car has full service history and has only done 62,000 miles and it is rare to break

 

My question is; During the water pump replacement, is there a possibility they done something wrong that could cause the tensioner to break? Do I have a strong argument against them

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

 

Thank you

Hi Yang...welcome to the Forum!

Not sure what engine you have in your car as there are several different timing belt arrangements depending on the engine.

I would imagine that if the timing belt drives the waterpump and the pump was replaced without replacing the cambelt and tensioners (unless they were relatively new at the time) then that was mistake number 1.

Generally at 62000 miles/8 years on the original timing belt, if replacing the waterpump (assuming it is part of the cambelt arrangement) you would also replace the belt and tensioner due to the age/mileage...a false economy not to!  Also, as parts have been disturbed during the stripdown/rebuild, then this can also lead to premature failure through slightly re-aligned components, belt tension (old belt), etc.

Good luck with your quest...let us know how you get on with it.

Cheers   Trevor

Hi Trevor,

Thank you for your reply!

It is a 1.8T engine and I can confirm it is chain driven, so the timing belt wouldn't need replacing.

The situation now is the car needs a new engine at a cost of £7,000 and I am in discussions with them about how much they should contribute to the rebuild.

Given the fact the car is chain driven, is there any chance they still needed to fiddle with it and mess something up?

Any advice would be much appreciated

 

Thank you

If the service history is with Audi themselves and the chain has broken I would imagine it is down to them as you could have had no influence in diagnosing or damaging the chain. Broken timing chains and tensioners/guides is quite common on a lot of diesel engine cars nowadays...Nissan X-Trail, Ford 2.0 TDCi to name but a few, but not so common on petrol engines that I know of.

Please keep us informed on how you get on with it

Cheers   Trevor