JohnB

Yeah, I'm getting that feeling, and once I've got past this nightmare, I'll post the details on the forum. Appreciate reading all the posts and the knowledge here from you guys. Thanks

Your prediction of inherited issue for buyers may unfortunately be true for me, time will tell, and I will keep the forum posted on my situation. Appreciate the insights I've gained from the audiownersclub.com forum, thanks to the staff for replies I've had so far.

i didn’t ask the obvious question, does timing belt issue ever show up on diagnostics, or is it a case of an experienced mechanic (not just a technician) a real mechanic listening to the engine to know it’s not right. It seems like this one particular part is the hidden achilles heal of the engine?

Thank Cliff, makes sense, and agree with you on your point about the water pump at same time, would you expect dealership to make this point as you have.

Thanks Gareth, yes, just navigating using your forum, putting this here as it relates to this vehicle and not Mollies in the other post, Hi Gareth, yeah, you're probably right, unlikely the dealership would schedule preventative maintenance to inspect timing belt and assembly, despite the risk of not doing it. Interested in your last statement though, that belt and assembly replaced at 5 years or c75k miles, whichever comes first, because this car is 7.5 years old, 66k miles on the clock, still under an Audi Smart service plan, contract still active, and none of the service records show either a timing belt and assemble replaced, or inspected, or advised to do either of these on the service documents.

Gareth, sorry, this is related to my post I started, didn't realize I was in a different thread here.

Hi Gareth, yeah, you're probably right, unlikely the dealership would schedule preventative maintenance to inspect timing belt and assembly, despite the risk of not doing it. Interested in your last statement though, that belt and assembly replaced at 5 years or c75k miles, whichever comes first, because this car is 7.5 years old, 66k miles on the clock, still under an Audi Smart service plan, contract still active, and none of the service records show either a timing belt and assemble replaced, or inspected, or advised to do either of these on the service documents.

Thanks Gareth, done some searching in the forums and didn't realize how common cambelt (timing belt) issues were, and how difficult it is to be specific about when belt should be inspected and replaced. Will carry on searching but not sure the forums will have the exact info I'm looking for. Most forum posts on this topic are talking about time and mileage in relation to replacement. That's important info to know but I'm also looking for preventative maintenance as in, when should a rubber timing belt be inspected, and depending on wear, replaced, like it mentions in other forum posts, wear is different when it's motorway vs stop start, urban activity, especially taxis and local deliveries like for Amazon, Next etc. So I'm trying to find something stated by Audi when they inspect the belt, otherwise how would someone know to replace the belt until it's too late?

Hi, I get what you're saying, not to worry about it for another 50,000, but would you want dealership to inspect the belt for wear during whichever is the right scheduled service, before it reaches 75,000 miles total, otherwise how will you know it's time to replace the belt? Not be provocative, just trying to understand how the cost of preventative maintenance pays off to avoid corrective maintenance, especially if this car is on an Audi service plan?

Magnet, now I understand why the forum has the rules about post and run. 🙂

I've read the new members post from Magnet about using the forums, so hopefully this post is ok. This information doesn't seem to be in the owner's manual or easily available on any official Audi websites. Ref the timing belt for an Audi A3 TDI 8V 1.6 Diesel, 2018 model, is the first inspection of the timing belt at 40,000 miles and after that, every 40,000 miles and should the timing belt be replaced every 60,000 miles or every 5 years which ever comes first, Thanks in advance, John