The cam timing variator is an internal part that the cam chain rides on. The feet that the chain ride on are plastic (nice) and the plastic piece broke off and went inside my motor bending the valves and lifters. The variator did could cause the rough idle because it wasn't keeping time like it should. But after that was fixed it was running just as bad if not worse and that was becanse of the bent valves/lifters. My boyfriend fixes our cars too and did a lot of work to the audi before we gave up. We would have spent thousands and thousands of dollars had we kept hunting and pecking for the problem, but like I said before we have a couple of good friends at the Audi dealership, so it was actually cheaper for us to take it in. My check engine light has come on twice since then and i had it scanned both times and it was because of the catalytic converter, but I am not really interested in fixing it at this point, I will probably trade my car in soon.

 

alright thanks i'll have to tell him about that. i am thinking of getting rid of this too, just because the parts are so expensive and hard to get to a lot of times. it's just a pain in the rear compared to our honda civic we got rid of. i really like the audi though, just too much hassle