If, like me, your pride and joy is coming up to four years old and your dealer has informed you that a cambelt change is needed, please pause and consider the following...

In contrast to VAG UK, where the recommendation is a blanket 60,000miles or four years, in Holland for 1.9TDi PD engined cars, Skoda NL recommend a cambelt change at 120,000km (75,000miles) and DO NOT specify an age limit. If pressed the dealer there will probably suggest somewhere around seven to eight years for low mileage cars. Over in Holland they charge around Eu360 (£288) for the work including parts etc.

How so I hear you cry! It seems that VAG 1.4 and 1.6 petrol engines both have plastic pulley wheels that in a similar fashion to those on GM cars of five years ago, have a habit of self-distructing. So changing them early makes good sense. On discovering their stupidity in using plastic, VAG UK, in their infinite wisdom, apparently issued a blanket cambelt advise note stating the 60,000mile/four year rule. Never mind that the set up on the 1.9TDi is very different and that other countries are more sensible in their approach and diferentiate between models.

So literally thousands of VAG drivers with diesel engines probably change their cambelts early, unecessarily and at not a little expense.

Still, this no doubt helps to swell the VAG/Dealer coffers with all those needless belt changes.

If only Britain was run a little more like Holland.

In Spain they tell you to do it at 80k (kms) I did it last week does this mean I am stoopid? the local independent mechanic, who used to be a VW mechanic said it had to be done and I trust him.

When you look at the cost and the mess that a broken cambelt can leave you with, and the fact that the cambelt and waterpump units have been uprated, it's probably all relative.....

How lucky do you feel?

I have always had the cambelts changed at 60K, regardless of what I am driving at the time. Its not just the pullies that break. I have seen what some of the chemicals and engine grime can do to the structure of the belt and have seen them with great chunks missing from the teeth of the belt.

How lucky do you feel?

:iagree: I'd rather have changed my belt a little earlier than strictly necessary than be in the situation of one of my former colleagues who had to scrap his XUD-engined 306 dTurbo after a snapped cambelt put it beyond economic repair.

And just to stir the pot a little more, a. the state of the belt itself is just as much a factor in it failing as the pulleys, and b. you can knock £100 off the Dutch bill to get the work done here in the UK, and that's at a 'premium' independent like Awesome...

When you look at the cost and the mess that a broken cambelt can leave you with, and the fact that the cambelt and waterpump units have been uprated, it's probably all relative.....

How lucky do you feel?

Well in principle I agree with you and certainly the question mark hanging over the water pump's reliability might yet tip me in favour of having the work done but when the car has covered less than half the distance the Dutch stipulate it seems a little excessive, after all the cars in Holland and in the UK have come off the same production lines.

Over a sixteen year ownership and doing the national average mileage, I calculate that an extra two cambelt changes would be carried out on a UK car as against a Dutch car. So the British driver forks out an extra and probably unecessary £500+ and simply because VAG UK can't be bothered to issue specific recommendations in this regard probably because it's a win win situation for them and their dealers. That's my main point.

:iagree: I'd rather have changed my belt a little earlier than strictly necessary than be in the situation of one of my former colleagues who had to scrap his XUD-engined 306 dTurbo after a snapped cambelt put it beyond economic repair.

And just to stir the pot a little more, a. the state of the belt itself is just as much a factor in it failing as the pulleys, and b. you can knock £100 off the Dutch bill to get the work done here in the UK, and that's at a 'premium' independent like Awesome...

1). Peugeot 306 diesels are the work of the devil

2). My local Skoda dealer has quoted £295 for the work, I'm still trying to find an independant who I'm comfortable with as I don't live 'up north'.

I have always had the cambelts changed at 60K, regardless of what I am driving at the time. Its not just the pullies that break. I have seen what some of the chemicals and engine grime can do to the structure of the belt and have seen them with great chunks missing from the teeth of the belt.

My point is not the 60k mile change, it is VAG's insistance that diesel engined cars that are simply four years old but have not covered anything like that distance, need to also have their belts changed. The Dutch seem, as in many things in life, take a more mature approach.

...I'm still trying to find an independant who I'm comfortable with as I don't live 'up north'.

The search is your friend!

Any recommendations for a VAG specialist in Surrey? - BRISKODA - The Skoda Forum and Community

SJB Autotech - Basingstoke - BRISKODA - The Skoda Forum and Community