?Drive belt problem or more serious

[DSM]

Whilst my partner was travelling back from dropping off her mother yesterday her 2003 A4 2.5TDi multitronic broke down, fortunately she managed to get the car across the dual carriageway on to a fuel station forecourt

Symptoms were heavy steering and the battery charge warning light came on. She also said the brakes felt "heavy" though the brakes felt OK to me but I only drove it up the flat bed of the breakdown truck but she insists they felt different.

The engine starts and seems to run normally.

Would I be correct in assuming the likely problem is a broken auxilliary drive belt and a fairly simple fix if that or do these cars seize alternators or idlers causing the belt to be thrown or broken?

Any idea of costs for these scenarios would be welcome.

It is now at a garage near Swindon awaiting them to open on Wednesday to take a look. We left it there as the tow charges were circa £400 back to Hampshire as she had not taken out breakdown insurance, as it was it cost me £95 so far for the pick up and tow!

Lucky for her I had not had a drink and was able to pick her up
Thanks and Merry Christmas :beerchug:

David

[phil miller]

it could very well be the alt belt has broken but it could be afew other things, but as the steering has gone heavy aswell that does point to the belt, fingers crossed mate

[DSM]

Hopefully!!!

Thank you for the swift reply.

Assuming thebreaks were "heavy" would this make sense? I know a lot of diesels use an engine driven vacuum pump for assistance

I did suggest when she bought it getting an after market warrenty and / or breakdown cover but no, she knew best!!

[phil miller]

Hopefully!!!

Thank you for the swift reply.

Assuming thebreaks were "heavy" would this make sense? I know a lot of diesels use an engine driven vacuum pump for assistance

I did suggest when she bought it getting an after market warrenty and / or breakdown cover but no, she knew best!!

some diesels use a pump on the rear of the alt for the servo pump but i dont think VAG do, the heavy brakes could be due to the steering going heavy and it was more in the mind than in real if you get my meaning, i have had in the past on 1.9 tdis where the alt belt tensioner breaks up and the belt comes off, TBH that would prob be a worse case, post up what they find mate

my OH knows best aswell mate :o

[richie_jones]

Don't forget to change the belt and the tensioner, as sometimes it's a bearing failure in the tensioner that's caused the belt to snap

[DSM]

Well the garage had it on the ramps and it is not good news. The auxiliary drive belt has broken but has also taken out the cam belt casing and has bent a pulley somewhere.

The engine is also running rough but will run. It has also apparently caused damage to one of the camshaft drive sprockets.

Unfortunately the garage is not an Audi specialist and do not want to do the work so it is being recovered back to IGS in Eastleigh who are very good on past experience.

Having spoken to IGS today they were reassuring that it is unlikely to have seriously damaged the engine as it runs and the likely outcome is that the injector and cam timing is out by a small amount as the cam belt may have jumped a tooth.

[phil miller]

fingers crossed a re time with new belts and it will be right as rain, one good way to look at it, the garage dont feel confident to do it so they have said rather than have a go and mess it up

[DSM]

Hopefully yes!

I am having to invoke the patience of all of the Saints to not remind madam that:

1/ I strongly suggested she took out breakdown cover.

2/ She got the belts changed shortly after buying the car as there was doubt as to if they had been changed.

Somehow it will turn out to be my fault I think!

Number 1 would have saved us £350 so far in towing fees.

[JohnyIre]

Hopefully yes!

I am having to invoke the patience of all of the Saints to not remind madam that:

1/ I strongly suggested she took out breakdown cover.

2/ She got the belts changed shortly after buying the car as there was doubt as to if they had been changed.

Somehow it will turn out to be my fault I think!

Number 1 would have saved us £350 so far in towing fees.
I love that! Always the way it happens. It saves HER money but costs US money! Why are car problems and costs always shared!

[DSM]

Well IGS now have the A4 stripped and the results are:

Auxiliary belt has been replaced along with all associated pulleys and tensioner.

The cam belt has clearly been changed as indeed has the water pump but there the good news ends so far.

IGS discovered paint marks all over the camshaft sprockets etc so clearly the garage that changed the belt did not have the correct tools to lock the cams and crank etc.

Also the belt pulleys looked as if they had been “hit by a hammer” as there was chipping to the edges,

IGS have cleaned these up but the real shock was finding that one of the cam belt tensioner bolts had been over tightened and had damaged the thread (I think he said where the bolt goes through the oil pump?) so the cam belt tensioner was not properly held in place and could have jumped out at any time.

We need to wait for a specialist to fit a steel threaded insert to allow the new tensioner to be fitted. Then it is a case of starting the engine and hoping the valves have not met the pistons although the engine has been run after the auxiliary belt broke so fingers crossed.

Apparently once all back together and assuming no more damage the injector timing needs setting up with the VAG computer, something the garage that did the work on it did not have.

Then we need to decide if we go after the supplying dealer who advertised the car as having a full service history although he has failed to produce it so far, also we have the problem of the intermittent ESP light. How much a statutory warranty covers is a grey area but he did mis-represent the car in the advert (of which I kept an electronic copy)

Any advice on this or any of the above welcomed.

[mikeybutch]

If you only bought the car recently you may have acase against the dealer but it is difficult if you only have statutory rights to go on.Even if there was evidence of the belt changes this wont of course show such a bodged job.We have two of these 03 manual and 04 triptonic and both use IGS. The o4 only has aletter from the first owner saying that he had the belts done as acash job nothing else so I think we may be booking it in soon thanks to hearing of your bad luck .Hope the pain eases soon

[DSM]

Update:

Car now repaired, total bill from IGS was £1066 although we did have an oil service.

Fortunately the vlaves did not hit pistons although the belt had jumped 2 teeth and the injector timing was badly out, All belts ,tensioners, pulleys etc have been replaced along with some damaged brackets and a new water pump.

The only downside was yesterday, ma'am was driving to Southsea when the coolant and overheating warnings came up, Greenflag were very good and attended promptly and found that the radiator top hose had come off.

I clalled IGS and Jim said they did not disconnect the radiator when working on the car as they "moved the radiator forword " I did tell them that the previous garage had disassembled the car and in the light of this I would have expected the mechanic to have checked the car properly before releasing it to us.

To be fair Jim at IGS did apologise, saw us straight away, drained the water the breakdown service had filled it with and re-filled with anti-freeze mix and checked it over. Now of course ma'am has no confidence in either the car of the garage!

Hopefully all will now be well but I imagine she will get rid of the car ASAP because to quote "all second hand cars are unreliable" Let us not bother with the evidence of 5 previous secondhand cars between us in the last 8 years with no problems...........................Thank you for all your help and comments.