seriesdriver

I believe there was a time years ago when the diesel tdi waterpumps had a plastic impeller which had a habit of not staying connected to the pump shaft this habit was stopped when the pumps were given metal impellers.

An advantage of getting a dealer to do it is the 2 year parts and labour warranty you would get, Looking on the skoda website their fixed price cambelt and water pump have gone up in price since I had ours last done. My dealer matched the Seat price last time as it was 70 odd quid less than skoda at the time I see now the price difference is a quid.

I have never been sure how you can properly inspect a cam belt without removing it. and if you are going to pay the labour to remove it you may as well replace it anyway. I asked to keep the belt after ours was changed and while the outer part of the belt that isn't in contact with anything looked perfect all of the teeth showed signs of wear. Your cambelt and tensioner may go on for years but it may not. The workshop I use make you sign a waiver if you take car in for mot and the belt hasnt been changed to spec and it should snap.

I would want it changed, but if they cant do basic servicing correct would you trust them to change a cam belt?

You may have been unlucky, what caused the diesel leak ? had you had a diesel filter change ? if the mk 3 filter is in the same place as a mk2 then an improperly fitted diesel filter lid can cause a leak. most engines of most ages with a cambelt will be in trouble if the belt goes enough teeth out of alignment.

I think that is the check engine light, so it could be dpf related, but you will only know by having the fault codes read.

Have you tried breakers yards near to you ? That would be my 1st port of call.

My sons girl friend back in to a low wall in her c1 Citroen the boiling water trick with pushing from behind worked a treat in putting the bumper back to shape.

Glad you got what you wanted out of it, Cheap motoring for someone

Hi not had to used it myself but this may be worth a try https://www.thompsonsltd.co.uk/products/gra0375-granville-gra0375-electro-connector-repair.html?gclid=CjwKCAiAjp6BBhAIEiwAkO9Wurxo8dPRLgX2CnVQYGYYFbI1z7VfnPZgxoKMEnWpCNw4LxOvOpppZRoChIoQAvD_BwE

May have been cheaper to keep the octavia and change the wife!!

Got ours in March 2010 when it was 9 months old it has just ticked over 115k miles still as nice a drive as when we got it and it still feels fresh not tired if you know what i Mean.

I would keep the car you have, turbos can be noisy for years and not fail. With the cambelt just run the risk of not getting done plenty of cars dont have them changed on time.

Even when you obviously have right on your side you sometimes have to decide if pursuing an injustice is going to be worth the time and effort involved, this may be one of those cases but only you can decide that.

Won't help in your current situation but get a spare key cut and coded from the one you have if you do it this way it will be way less expensive than sorting it out if you lose your key and have to have one cut from scratch.

unless it has spent the last 8 months in a brine tank that is bad, I would consider reporting mot garage to vosa (or whatever they call themselves these days)

Did you get any joy from the local tuning center ? their advice was horribly optimistic , certainly making your car illegal as you have found out. I would expect them to at least cover the labour to refit a working dpf.

My other car is a 1999 toyota land cruiser the plate limit is 1.3 it passed this in May at 1.11 but I wonder how many get tested to the 3.0 limit as the sticker plate has "fallen off"

My 2009 1.9 get tested to a plate value of 1.0 not 0.8

With long life servicing it would seem a sensible choice to have one dealer service to keep a warranty that may pay for a new engine or other major expense if something failed prematurely . I know you can use independent servicing to the same standard and keep warranty but it gives you another hoop to jump in the event of a claim

cabin and air filters are as cheap as chips and take about 5 mins to change so since car went out of warranty I change my own cabin filter every year, air filter every two years.

Another thumbs up here for archoils products a tank of the more expensive branded "super" diesel may help. I assume the car is serviced regularly and the air filter etc are in good order every little helps now they test to plate limits.

Think I will just turn on tune in and drop out, like an old timing tensioner.

A reasonable number of timing belt failures are in reality tensioner failures, as has been said by previous poster I can't understand why when you are going to the effort to change the belt you wouldnt change tensioner nowt as odd as folk as they say.

If you are having other work done on discs/hubs it may be worth replacing them otherwise many people dont bother, they have the tensile strength of tinfoil pie dishes which is why they snap off.