Timing belt AISIN or OEM Audi

Paid $500 to a trusted mechanic. Ordered an AISIN timing belt kit and a Bando drive belt for around $250 (including tax and shipping).

Get the Aisin (OEM supplier) Timing belt and water pump w/ hydraulic tensioner kit (TKT021) from RockAuto (good price, authentic Aisin).

I used to be a Toyota parts guy, we used aisin kits for all our timing belt jobs on all the UZ V8s, all of them are the same layout.

AISIN TKT-021 kit has everything you need for timing belt/water pump. The water pump is driven by the timing belt, so always replace it when doing the belt.

That’s what I paid to have the timing belt done on my Audi A4 at an Audi independent shop.

Re the timing belt, if that has not been done I would get to that immediately. At 350K km it is a ticking time bomb. Use, specify, or supply the Aisin TKH-002 timing belt kit. It is OEM quality

I’ve used dozens of the Aisin TKH002 kits- they come with koyo bearings, a decent tensioner, and a Mitsuboshi timing belt, all very similar to the oem Honda parts. I think the only major difference is the Honda water pumps are usually made by Yamada and the aisin ones are made by aisin… I can’t say I’ve ever had failures with them

Aisin timing belt kit is a few hundred bucks and very nice quality parts.

6 years or 75,000 miles is the most I'd push any timing belt. We inspected a timing belt on a 2002 A4 with 57,000 miles in September - in-service date of 6/1/02 so it's over 6 years. Told her the belt is walking off, riding the edge of the tensioner and fraying.

The timing belt failed kindly early 65k later, so could have been bogus Aisin parts.