Weighing up whether or not to do this myself, I am a competent mechanic, but I try to shy away form working on road cars.

Has anyone done this themselves, is fairly bearable?

Main dealer wants £350 to do this, assume an independent would want circa £250?

A good independent should be a lot less than £250… Just for the cambelt change that is… £250 might be the whole service.

Where are you based, if it's anywhere near me (Worcestershire) can put you in touch with a very good mechanic who doesn't take the piss on price.

I am in……Worcestershire, mechanic details would be great 🙂

Although I am mechanically competent I always get the main VW dealer to do my TDi cambelt changes as they give a very good warranty on the work that way if the belt busts its over to them for the engine rebuild. I know that to do mine without a garage its outside in the cold with the bumper etc etc off the car ro do the job-too much hassle.

I just got mine done on my A3, cost £280 (independent). I saw the old belt, looked like new, only changed it as Audi called me and said it needed doing, they wanted to charge £350.

I have beens tung before with a timing belt though (destroyed engine) so didnt want to take the risk!!

I think it's a fixed price of £230 at a VW dealer (it is at mine) and you get your car valeted for free at the same time. Besides, it's then their fault if it snaps, as Suggsey says.

moe

my email is in my profile, drop me an email, i'll send you his details.

He can give you a quote that way. He's based over by Bredon if that's of any use. My mate uses a Garage over Malvern way though, can't remember who, can find out for you if you'd like.

This is an easy belt to do dude.

Front end comes off very easily actually and you can pull the radiator far enough away to not have to drain the coolant etc.

Took me a good few hours one afternoon but saves £300++

Fraz

If it's anything like the belt on a golf tdi it's a pain in the arse and worth getting a garge/dealer to do it. My missus works at a Suzuki dealer and we get most of the work done FOC there but the cambelt we took to VW – they quoted retail price of £300 including the water pump.

it can usually be well worth while on VW tdi's to do the water pump as well – failure of that is just as bad as timing belt and is driven by timing belt & accessible when everything is bits doing the belt anyway.

Agree with cp. I was told by independent audi dealer (independent Dave – chesterfield) that the water pump bearings should also be replaced at the same time and this is not always done by main dealers and then they charge double when you go back with it.

I did mine on an old TD engine, probably laid out the same but I'm sure the engine bay is more packed.

Invest in the camshaft locking tools from ebay if I were you. Only a few quid and saves a lot of worry.

I too got a ridiculous quote from Audi to do this.
I took it to the local independant who said "well, I've never done one before but I can't see any problems with it so I'll do it for £150.00."

When I collected the car he told me that he'd honour the quote but he was never going to do it again for that money as it was such a ball-ache!

Try getting a 4-cam V6 AUDI done cheap in the back street; I traded mine when it needed doing – far better value.

I had a Guy fit a new power steering pump & he also fitted the cam belt at the same time as it was due a change can't recall the total amount but it was far far less than a main dealer. get an independant to do it especially if it out of warranty.

Great thanks everyone, still toying with what to do.

Done quite a few recently, piece of cake once you get the front bumper and surports off. takes a bit of time to figure out how they come off, but you may be able to find a manual detailing it. You can then pull the front pane l forward to give more room. It will help if you have sone very good allen keys to undo the crank pulley bolts as they are worse than cheese! The actual fitting of the belt is relativly straight forward, depending on which tensioner is fitted, as the hydraulic ones require serious squashing and patience to compress! If your going to have a go, it helps to have a couple of 8mm threaded rods or bolts about 15cm long to guide the front panel forward to stop stressing the a/c pipes. Loosening the intercooler pipes helps give more movement too. Hope that lot helps!!