Glad to say this all went swimmingly... I couldn't justify the 1200 quid that the stealers wanted for this job. Certainly its not for the average DIY mechanic but I got thru it with the help of the brother in law who is a bit of an ace with the old spanners - trained by Scania actually.
I also got the necessary special tools (150 Euros worth) from a specialist in Germany - I can post a link if anyone is interested. Service was good from them and they speak English MUCH better than I do German. Postage was slow though but not their fault.
The timing belt job is an alleged 6 hours from from start to finish if you've done it before. Reckon we could do it again in 5 with some luck but this isn't a job you want to hurry.
We took our time, plenty of photos, some beers and laughs along the way and I am so much more satisfied with the result than if I'd gone to a dealer.
We changed every roller, tensioner, damper or otherwise moving part of the four belts at the front of the engine. Audi would only have changed a few that are included with the timing belt kit. Credit here has to go to s2avant who provided expert help in ensuring I had all the right parts. Nothing was wrong or inconsistent - So extra
to Ben for that 
Some of those extra parts took a bit of exploratory surgery to replace (as the manual doesn't cover them cos I spose Audi reckons they just live forever). But I wanted the peace of mind that all was fresh in this area.
I hope to post a photo-blog of the job while the details are fresh in my head - I couldn't find any online resource to help with this and actually the official manual isn't written very clearly in places about the exact sequence of steps.
We must have spent 18 hours on the car all tolled, but we also changed all the filters, a front outer CV boot (the hard way cos the frickin top bolt wouldn't budge and we had to remove the entire strut with hub carrier and wishbone attached), the coolant pump, thermostat and some leaky injector return pipes.
The main timing belt is a mahoosive thing on the V6TDI engine and its weird as there are no timing marks or keyways on the crank pulleys - you lock them from the rear.
Pretty nerve-jangling when it came time to crank it, despite three static checks of the timing at crank, cams and pump... But it fired up a treat and the dynamic check on VAGCOM showed us to be bang on spec for the diesel pump timing - skill or luck its all good !
I'm sure it took us nearly an hour to get the bumper off 1st time round, but once you know the trick its a 10min job. The Bentley manual was a bit rubbish for this bit. Putting it back on requires some patience to line it up sweet but it looks perfect.
Anyway - more jobs to do on the thing in the near future -
CV boot on the other side is split
Brake fluid is due changing
And the ATF is good to change every 40k miles regardless...
So I don't have an Audi dealer stamp for this service, but I have the parts lists and photos to prove everything that was done and done right. Right I'm rambling now - can you smell the relief that this job is over now ?
Oh the satisfaction
Paul
I also got the necessary special tools (150 Euros worth) from a specialist in Germany - I can post a link if anyone is interested. Service was good from them and they speak English MUCH better than I do German. Postage was slow though but not their fault.
The timing belt job is an alleged 6 hours from from start to finish if you've done it before. Reckon we could do it again in 5 with some luck but this isn't a job you want to hurry.
We took our time, plenty of photos, some beers and laughs along the way and I am so much more satisfied with the result than if I'd gone to a dealer.
We changed every roller, tensioner, damper or otherwise moving part of the four belts at the front of the engine. Audi would only have changed a few that are included with the timing belt kit. Credit here has to go to s2avant who provided expert help in ensuring I had all the right parts. Nothing was wrong or inconsistent - So extra
to Ben for that Some of those extra parts took a bit of exploratory surgery to replace (as the manual doesn't cover them cos I spose Audi reckons they just live forever). But I wanted the peace of mind that all was fresh in this area.I hope to post a photo-blog of the job while the details are fresh in my head - I couldn't find any online resource to help with this and actually the official manual isn't written very clearly in places about the exact sequence of steps.
We must have spent 18 hours on the car all tolled, but we also changed all the filters, a front outer CV boot (the hard way cos the frickin top bolt wouldn't budge and we had to remove the entire strut with hub carrier and wishbone attached), the coolant pump, thermostat and some leaky injector return pipes.
The main timing belt is a mahoosive thing on the V6TDI engine and its weird as there are no timing marks or keyways on the crank pulleys - you lock them from the rear.
Pretty nerve-jangling when it came time to crank it, despite three static checks of the timing at crank, cams and pump... But it fired up a treat and the dynamic check on VAGCOM showed us to be bang on spec for the diesel pump timing - skill or luck its all good !
I'm sure it took us nearly an hour to get the bumper off 1st time round, but once you know the trick its a 10min job. The Bentley manual was a bit rubbish for this bit. Putting it back on requires some patience to line it up sweet but it looks perfect.
Anyway - more jobs to do on the thing in the near future -
CV boot on the other side is split
Brake fluid is due changing
And the ATF is good to change every 40k miles regardless...
So I don't have an Audi dealer stamp for this service, but I have the parts lists and photos to prove everything that was done and done right. Right I'm rambling now - can you smell the relief that this job is over now ?
Oh the satisfaction
Paul
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