JHM has been working on the entire “timing chain” solution for years. The cam adjuster has been out for a while, in testing. Guides, have been tested for a very long time. The goal for JHM is to have a ultimate chain kit just like the belt driven motors have the ultimate kit. As if the shiny stuff isn’t enough of a tease, now there is every part of the “system” that is currently in testing. JHM is not leaving anything on the table that isn’t getting addressed.
This is AR, you’re not going to get people telling you you’re stupid for being smart and cautious about your car. The right time to replace the components is as soon as you feel comfortable.
You will just have to wait and find out! It’s not timing related, if that helps.
Yes; all labor will be by me, with some supervision from a couple of my friends who are Audi certified technicians. If you are local, I would be happy to give you a hand after I do mine. If I were paying for the labor, I would be much more inclined to sell the car and buy something else. Not only that, but the only shop in the country I would trust to do the job correctly is in California (JHM). Dealerships and indy’s don’t get enough of these to be proficient, and it certainly is highly technical. (in my opinion)
I can’t wait for the electric adjuster guide, but I can always dive back in and do that, and its failure is very rare, I am told. Meanwhile, mechanical adjusters and chain tensioner(s) are already showing age. But I certainly appreciate the efforts of yourself and the crew over there to continue bringing us solutions.
The way I see it is the more savings they provide over oem will result more proactive maintenance and those customers splurging on their performance parts since they “saved” so much over oem.
Example. I would be paying 5K for timing service but since its only costing me 3K Ill pick up some headers, tune and IM.
I think it might be better to make the psrts more expencive. More expencive parts keep the cheep kids from buying the csrs…when the cheep kids come in generally thats when all the advancement dies…
I will seriously consider buying another one in a few years though as a project. Get a built motor with upgraded timing and slap a blower on it…supercar territory for $25-30k
I kinda agree with your outlook though Chris. Fucking kids have drove the last nail in the B5S4 coffin.
Squiddy (or anyone else for that matter), are the guide/tensioner weaknesses only with the B5’s? I’ve read so much about them and even some B7’s but I’m curious if it applies to the RS4?
Bryan at Rodgers (indie in Ottawa) tells me it’s a $5k job and if needed, I would consider it as a preventative item too. I’m only at 36k miles but if it’s on the future agenda, might as well plan for it. I too want to keep my car for a long while and this, along with DRC, are the two things I think will be bigger ticket items (unless I go JHM SC - I wish).
I’ve always said it should be part of regular maintinece on these cars. People that are running beyond 75k with original timing components are playing with fire.
totally. The problem is that people buying $12,000 cars don’t do so in most cases anticipating that expense. It’s a ‘cheap’ way to get into a cool car.
I still haven’t heard much discussion on the RS4 timing components or failures. Does anyone have any information on that?
B7 RS4s haven’t had any issues really. Audi must have more thought into those components, which makes sense considering how the motor spins 1k more RPMs.