It may be better and cheaper to use a well regarded independent. My previous S8 had its first timing belt changed at an audi dealer using tip-ex marks. :tuttut:

Few Audi dealers have specialists on hand who know how to maintain a D2 correctly, it is a rare car.
Independents I have had belt changes at are much better in my opinion, Unit20, MRC tuning, 4Rings. Deciding factor may be if they are too far.

If you can do it yourself, then for real peace of mind do it. Use Febi or Meile parts as they are VAG suppliers and hire the tools from A8 Parts.
I just did it http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/showthread.php?t=12411
Add on to that a day of Michaela time and it was far cheaper than any garage and I know it was done properly this time unlike the time the white paint marks were use.

As an aside, on a gentle run to Londinium this weekend gone I got 30mpg!

30?! Jesus did you get out and push??

I don't think I'd bother with a main dealer unless I knew the mechanics. If they can't fix a car without a computer then they ain't mechanics.

When you ain't in a rush 65 is a comfortable rate of advance.

It is about the pulleys etc as you point out and its the EXACT reason that I raised the questions I did. It was in fact A for Audi that I was referring to in my earliest post. I bought the car from The Laird and he had had the cambelt, pump, thermostat etc done at A for Audi but when the thermostat failed 5yrs later I discovered that they had not used Audi parts at all - it was a Contitech belt with unattributable pump/pulleys etc. They did have a great reputation at one time but seemed to over-reach themselves. Whoever you get to do it make sure you want to see all the parts BEFORE they put them into the car. I was a pain in the ar@e with my indy garage but they know what I expect and do what I expect of them. +++

Just had my cambelt done and insisted on OE parts to be used.

Car has just passed 190,000 and the last cambelt was 4 years and 40,000 miles ago. The main reason I had it done was the thermostat had stuck plus the water pump was beginning to become a little leaky.

Cost was £780 all in at a local Audi specialist.

I had mine changed in September last year after owning the car about 4 months. It had only done about 48k since the last change but it had been about 7 years prior. I was paranoid so booked it in to get everything changed; belts, pulleys; water pump; thermostat etc which cost me about £1,300 using genuine parts.

Mine was done at an independent who's familiar with these cars and engines and he said before starting he would change based on mileage rather than age but, hey it's your money. Once stripped down he could see no reason why the previous belts & tensioners wouldn't do another 30k. His reason being that these are relatively low stress engines and everything looked in great condition. He reckoned modern belts degrade far less than manufacturers guidelines and nothing like belts of yester year. There's always exceptions though and I didn't want the risk!

That's put me off them a bit. At least it was only the thermostat that failed however, pain in the arse but not a car killer!

So it was done 5 years ago by a crowd down south. I might just sit on it while I evaluate Audi specialists up here first :-)

I also used to use A for Audi, however as David has said I think they tried to grow too quickly and Andy, the owner, became too remote from the day to day business, which is a shame as he is a really nice guy, however he hadnt managed to instill the same work/customer service ethic into his more junior staff. I never had any bad experience with work they did, but they did let me down a couple of times with dates/times/parts etc. TBH these cars are not all that specialist to maintain, and suggest any competent mechanic could cope, I do however stress the word competent....I have found a local mechanic who is superb, (and I mean a proper mechanic who fixes things and not just a VCDS user and parts fitter that main dealers, and to an extent A for Audi use) I use him for the family fleet including the RS6 which IMHO is slightly more complex than my S8 and he has never let me down.