pepperami666

Hi Bobspark, Yes there are a few Vwag engines with wet belts. I'm currently replacing the wet belt on my other halves Fabia 1.6 TDI. It's a 2013 cayb engined car with a little under 180k miles. Always had service on time with correct oil. We bought it with 130k on the clock. At the time I didn't know VW used wet belts. Having known the ford issues I would have avoided it had I know it had a wet belt. Crank seal was leaking so I looked into changing it myself that's when I found out it had a wet belt. It also started to develop a tick when cold from the top end. As the cam belt needed to come off to do the crank seal I decided to do the wet belt at the same time. When I stripped the sump off I could see more debris than I'd have liked in the oil strainer. The belt once removed is starting to break up. Seems the strainer was at least half blocked with bits of belt. So glad I changed it. Not back together yet as damaged the new crank seal trying to get the housing back on. Seems Tps don't supply the plastic seal installation sleeve with the seal like elring do for aftermarket seals. It's almost impossible to fit it without the sleeve or the VW tool. Also wanted to change the thermostat whilst I have the water out to do the water pump. But that's a shed load more work. So much needs to come off to even get it out. It also had a water leak from behind the oil cooler/ oil filter housing. Found the plastic oil cooler/ oil filter housing broken up & bits in the water way in the block. Seems these modern engines are sh*te & designed to fail. Your neighbour is right. I'm sure there are more Vwag engines with wet belts. I'm pretty sure the 2.0TDI , 1.4tdi also have wet belts. Below is some of the debris I removed from the oil pick up. Working outside so some got blown off the rag. Going to see if Tps have a new pick up pipe whilst I'm getting a new seal today.