Itspointless

I have no idea, it was new but a pattern part. The pulley has a few mm play and knocks when I twist it left or right. Replaced with a OEM shaft and it's fine now. The pattern part has INA stamped on it but so does the audi one. About £400 price difference though.

Update on this. Inlet camshaft pulley buggered!

Unfortunately if you have had the oil cooler changed already then the only suspect left is the head gasket as mentioned above.

Any water in the oil?

Yes that looks like it can be removed. Looks like you won't need a radiator. That's good news.

the screwdriver is pointing directly towards where the pipe plugs into the radiator outlet.

If you look at the end that's broke off you can see the connector with the little silver circlip the same clip that's on the other end where it plugs into the expansion tank. Plugged into that clip on the radiator end is the radiator outlet that's broken off the radiator. It's part of the radiator and cannot be replaced, the pipe is fine but the radiator is buggered! I've just looked at mine and the radiator can be removed easily enough. It could have been knocked at some point and weakened it, or excessive pressure in the cooling system could have caused the radiator to split or it could even be a case of someone breaking it in the past and glued it back on. Anyway any good garage will be able to replace the radiator and check the cooling system is working properly. Did you not get a coolant level warning appear on the dash?

You can see the outlet still clipped into the pipe. It's broken off the radiator. You could try and glue it but it's not gonna hold for long. The system will be pressurised when hot! You may be able to remove the radiator without taking the bumper off but I can't be sure. I'll look at mine later and see.

That's broken from the radiator mate. You need to replace the radiator. There's no way I'd be driving that 15 miles, get it towed.

I understand what you are saying, just trying to say if you have a 7 year old car with 20k on the clock then changing the belt seems pointless. If it's 7 years old and 10k away from the interval then yea I'd recommend changing it. I would always advise that you stick to the manufacturers schedule. Apart from oil changes that seem a bit far between lately. After a random call from audi I would pop into my local dealer and see if there's any truth in this change. Normally they will give you a courtesy call informing you a service is due but changes in manufacturers recommendations Normally comes in the form of a letter or email.

That sounds a bit fishy to me. I've owned a couple of hybrids but not plug in and in auto mode they have managed the battery charge quite well. The last I had was a lexus and that manged the battery charge on regenerative braking alone. It also had a separate 12v battery to start the engine in the event the battery pack was depleted. If you never intend to plug it in maybe you should consider exchanging it for a non plug in hybrid.

I bought a 12 year old focus several years ago with 50k on the clock original timing belt, sold it to a friend who put another 60k on it over the space of several years. He never had the belt changed. He sold it back to me in 2021 cheap, so cheap I give it to my ex girlfriend who needed a car, anyway to cut a long story short she sold it last year with over 120k on the clock and I see it on Facebay a few months later with a suspected snapped belt! The car was a 2005 model so the belt lasted well past its use by date and recommended mileage. I've seen a few manufacturers giving two intervals lately I.e 80k warranty and 120k out of warranty. Personally I've always done the belt on the cars I care about on mileage alone and not had a belt snap on me yet. I think someone that uses their car alot is gonna hit the mileage long before the belt is considered out of date and those that don't use the car a lot don't do enough miles for the belt to be that badly degraded in the time frame.

I would imagine that a lot of belts sit in store rooms for many years before being put to use. So age isn't really an issue. In this day and age they seem to out live timing chains quite well.

Well I've tensioned the chain with the bracket removed put it back together and it's still the same. Definitely sounds like it's coming from the inlet cam pulley. Guess I'm gonna have to strip down the top end again and replace the camshaft.

I've just read another timing procedure instructions online that says to tension the chain with the camshaft support bracket removed. And the instructions a friend printed for me says to tension the chain with the support in place. Maybe this is where I have gone wrong? Thanks.