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Hello,

How much would a cambelt/ water pump replacement cost for an Audi A4 (1800 cc engine). Year of manufacture is 2000.

Also, apparently the factory manual says a replacement is only required after 180k. That sounds quite high for my taste. What is your recommendation regarding when cambelts should be changed?

Cheers

Yes, my technical information is confirming your comments with the 2000YM A4 fitted with the 1.8 litre engine having a 180K cam belt replacement period.

I must say this is a long time and I’m not sure I would be prepared to take the risk for a car of this age.

A phone call to a Audi agent to double check the replacement period muddied the waters even further.

They recommended a replacement period of 120K and five years (whichever came first) for the A4 fitted with the bigger engine and a lesser distance but one year longer replacement period for the smaller (1.8l) engine.

So, based on the information provided by the agent I rang, (and unless another Audi agent or expert can convince you otherwise) I would definitely be working on the side of caution and have the belt replaced.

It has become standard practice to replace the water pump when a cam belt is being changed and we support that practice in general. I did notice in your case that the water pump is not driven by the cam belt however (in the technical information I read) so I can only assume it is located in the same area and the recommendation to replace is based on convenience and not wanting to repeat the labour in the near future.

Nothing is ever cheap on these vehicles so I would not be surprised if the estimate to replace the belt was around the $1500 mark.

You should shop around however but only get a garage who know Audi’s to give you an estimate or carry out this work.