CRC

There has always been a debate raging regarding when cam belts need to be changed, and I think a lot of it is driven by fear and, to an extent, greed. On the V6, the milage interval is stated as 80,000 miles and in Europe, that's it - no time interval. In the UK, somehow it came into being that all VAG engines should have their cambelts done every 4 years, though there was a big suspicion that this was due to water pumps with plastic impellors on higher revving petrol engines failing due to the bonding between the plastic impellor and the metal shaft failing. Some manufacturers suggest 10 years or 120,000 miles, and to be honest, judging by the condition of the belt and tensioners that I took off that would seem perfectly reasonable to me as I could detect no wear in anything. The belts will age due to UV, but as it's pretty dark down there behind the covers, that's unlikely, and the most likely cause of failure is failing bearings on the tension or water pump casusing friction on the flat side of the belt. The cam belt change on the V6 is no picnic, and in the past, I've been quoted between £600 and £1000 for the job, and this time, all up, I reckon it cost about £230 in belts, rollers, pump, thermostat etc and that was after getting a very good deal on components when the chance arose. There are no labour charges in there, and by the time the job was done, I reckon it took me about two days, but there was an awful lot of checking and double checking going on to avoid those costly " oh **** moments". The pump timing is very important to get within spec, as many a VP44 pump has been suspected to have gone to that great scrapyard in the sky due to a botched cam belt change, as, if the static timing is too far out (as set on the elongated holes), the suspicion is that the internals of the pump have to work overtime to get the correct advance and retard and it self destructs. Still, all done now and here's to another ten years or so of happy motoring

Our other two cars are a 2003 Honda Jazz (great car, love it to bits) and a 1999 Porsche Boxster for sunny days, and frankly, the Honda and the Skoda leave the Porsche a long way behind in terms of reliability and build quality .... the Boxster goes well enough, but I always get the impression that it's going to break down, though in reality it never has. Both the Superb and the Jazz give you that warm, comfortable feeling that tells you that the car is going to look after you ..... odd really, but that's the way they both feel. I believe the 2.5 V6 was voted "Towing Car of the Year" at some time in its history ..... though mine has never been fitted with atow bar

...... I thought I'd just add an update for old time's sake. I still have my 2006 Skoda Superb Elegance 2.5 TDI manual which has given sterling service for the last 12 years or so. I realise that it's quiet on here now and I assume that that's because there aren't that many Mk1s stiil out there .... a quick search on E-Bay revealed that there are no 2.5 manuals for sale, and only a few 2.5 autos which a few traders are asking silly money for. I suppose that most of the 1.9 TDIs were "taxied to death", most of the 2.0 TDIs succumbed to the dreaded oil pump drive issue and that most of the 2.5s were autos that succumbed to the £2.5k issue that any automatic box will cost to get fixed these days, and any 2.5s that didn't get auto box problems and moved onto vey high mileages probably succumbed to a VP44 issue. Mine is still only on 118k miles, and is going like a good'un. Changed the cam belt, water pump and thermostat last weekend ( last done 67k miles and TEN YEARS ago), and couldn't see / feel any wear in any of the components - belt looked good, all tensioners fine, water pump fine but the two auxiliary belts had seen better days (they were original and had never been changed) and three of the deflection idlers on the auxiliary belt side need changing as they were starting to show signs of noise / roughness. Even better, the car flew through it's MOT a few days later with no advisories. Checked the pump timing with VCDS after the engine had warmed up, and it had changed from the 2.4 degrees BTDC that I'd had measured before the cam belt change to 0.4 degrees BTDC after the belt change. VCDS says that it's "in spec", so tried it and think I'll leave it there as the engine starts easily, ticks over very smoothly and seems to have a bit more "grunt and growl" than it did before. There is no noticeable smoke at all and the the MOT emissions test stated that there was "no value to measure", which I assume means no smoke at all. Things I've done to the car over the years Bilstein B4 shock absorbers - about £30 per corner on average. Bosch discs and brake pads - about £30 per corner on average. New front spring after I hit the mother of all potholes on a dark, rainy night. New strut top mount as I think the impact from the pothole messed with something in there. Two new drop links - trying to find the noise that was eventually pinned down to the strut top. Great car that's worth almost nothing these days, but really good to drive still.