The attached Patch to /etc/init.d/autofs makes it handle the timeout option in auto.master correctly; the timeout option needs to be passed to automount _before_ the mount point, otherwise it seems to be regarded as default option for mount.
Created attachment 101 [details, diff] quick hack for /etc/init.d/autofs to make it handle the timeout option correctly this patch seems to work, but it is _far_ from being elegant.
applied. thanks for the report.