Catastrophic!

I heard this story 5th-hand so it may not be 100% accurate but it's a lesson learned the hard way...

So some guy needs to do a timing belt on his V6 Audi A4 and doesn't want to pay the roughly $500.- labour to have it done professionally. He's never done something like this before but figures how hard can it be right? Mistake #1.

Well, he does his 'maintenance' and starts the car up. Right away it sounds like hell and is running rough. Instead of towing it to the shop to get looked at he figures he'd save the tow charge and drive it in, noise and running rough notwithstanding. Mistake #2. If you think like me you'll now be wondering how people with this much lack of common sense afford such nice cars?

He never makes it to the shop and it comes in on a towtruck. He didn't set the timing belt/timing right and the valves were still open as the piston came up. The net result is the piston hit the valve(s) repeatedly and the valve(s) finally broke off into the cylinder. The car still runs and he drives it only a short while until the constant beating of the piston and broken valve parts puts the pieces of valves through the top of the piston and that's when all hell really breaks loose.

The damage is total. The only fix is complete replacement of the engine. That $500.- saved? Multiply it by about 12 to 15 and you'll get an idea of the service bill he's getting.