Needs to be replaced every four years or 60,000 miles ( I think it is ) he laughed and said you only need to replace the cambelt when the car has almost reached 60 k whatever age it is. My car is 4 yrs in March and he say's I should not bother. I am not prepared to take the risk so in November the car will be serviced and a new cambelt/water pump will be changed.

'Mates' great aren't they. Especially when they dont know their ar$e from their elbow.

Had the same conversation with a work mate, he laughed too, saying it was a big con etc

He has a peugeot 206 Hdi, 60k change I think?

Mines 4yrs old in Jan 09, has only done 14k, but I'll get it done.

My Dad's vRS was done last year at around 40k, and the mechanic said it was showing

'considerable' wear.

Makes me laugh - these are the same types of mates that try telling me to not declare my impending remap as the insurers wont be able to tell. FFS.....

For the record I renewed my insurance with Chris Knott today (remap declared) and my cambelt at about 48k when it was bang on 4 years old. You don't take the pi55 with something as vital and potentially engine killing thing as the cam belt.

Isn't a cambelt 4 years or 75k on a Fabia? I asked an idependant garage the question and that was the answer I got, maybe I ought to check as mine has just past 60k!!

When I ran my Citroen/Peugeot Diesel business in the late 90's, I ALWAYS changed the cambelts of any car I bought in for sale just to be safe, and always recommended 40K miles for the cambelt to be changed, again to be on the safe side.For a £13 belt and an hours work, I always had the peace of mind it wasn't going to snap and ruin the engine.

Isn't a cambelt 4 years or 75k on a Fabia? I asked an idependant garage the question and that was the answer I got, maybe I ought to check as mine has just past 60k!!

Ask yourself a question, why would you have a cambelt change at 75k when the service schedule is every 10k.

Its 60k or four years, as plastered everywhere over this forum

independant schmindependant

206 HDI 2.0 ltr might be on 96k belt intervals

This is worrying, i bought my skoda which was a company car 116k on it, and every service done at the same dealer, yet, the cambelt was done at 80k??!!

This is worrying, i bought my skoda which was a company car 116k on it, and every service done at the same dealer, yet, the cambelt was done at 80k??!!

I think it used to be 80k on some PD's

I think....

It's deffo on the 60k service for the VRS and with the PD being an interference engine I would be getting it done at 60k. Yours has been done though so there is no point in worrying

I too asked the question on here. My next service is at 4 years and I will have done around 30K so it will be a cambelt and waterpump as advised.( 1.9 TDI PD 100. )Why risk it?

There's loads about this on here. Got that confused about what it should be, contacted Skoda UK who said:-

"Thank you for your e-mail regarding the cam belt for your ©koda Fabia vRS.

I can confirm that the revised cam belt guidelines advise replacement every four years, regardless of vehicle mileage. The cam belt is a perishable item, subject to environmental wear and is serviceable only when a vehicle is fully serviced.

These guidelines are in place to ensure the optimum running of the engine, taking into account the age of the vehicle and the wear and tear of the component. Replacement is a preventative measure and is entirely at your discretion.

We revise guidelines regularly in order to offer the best service and most current and accurate information for our customers."

April 2008.

When I ran my Citroen/Peugeot Diesel business in the late 90's, I ALWAYS changed the cambelts of any car I bought in for sale just to be safe, and always recommended 40K miles for the cambelt to be changed, again to be on the safe side.For a £13 belt and an hours work, I always had the peace of mind it wasn't going to snap and ruin the engine.

1 hour to change the cambelt on an XUD(T)?

1 hour to change the cambelt on an XUD(T)?

i was thinking that seems a bit light to do one of those too:cool:

I was under the impression that my Fabia Classic (w reg 2000) has a chain rather than a belt? Is this right?

It's just gone through 60,000 miles so if its a belt I'll get it changed asap. Thanks

If its a 1.4 MPi then yes, its chain driven.

1 hour to change the cambelt on an XUD(T)?

It depends, you can just about do it in an hour if you have everything ready on an XUD, but I think the XUDt in a 306 was closer to 2 hours. The 405/BX did have a shed load of space around that side of the engine too so that may have helped.

I once saw somebody do the following:

Undo the engine mounting, cover off, drill bits in to lock and push the new belt on and the old one off slowly as you worked it on. Once the new one was on you could then cut the old one off the inside. :eek:

I'd never do it that way, but the car worked for a while at least.

I did a cambelt and water pump on my old 306 TD, pretty sure that was an XUDT, bit tight for space up the back iirc.

Also this was an ASZ belt I took off the other day, only done 34,000 miles but four years old.

Focus isnt great but you can clearly see the cracks in the back of the belt. I would think a belt that stays stationary for longer is more likely to get these cracks.

ooh nasty:eek:

Cheers Ross, I think a 306 HDi would be S prefix or later, and possibly badged HDi.

I'm not sure about the cause of stress cracking, but have a suspicion that it's probably idle periods followed by lots of starts once the belt gets a bit older.

You'll probably know better than I do; is a new belt more flexible than one that's just off but not obviously cracked?

It depends, you can just about do it in an hour if you have everything ready on an XUD, but I think the XUDt in a 306 was closer to 2 hours. The 405/BX did have a shed load of space around that side of the engine too so that may have helped.

I'd have expected to need more than that just to remove and replace the covers and engine mounting!

The guy i used to rally with had a 4AGE (1600cc Corolla) engine built for his rally car (by a well respected race engine builder) about 4 years ago, he has only just got the car finished from a ground up rebuild, he ran the engine in, (not sure how many miles but it would of been less than 1,000) put it on the rollers to be set up correctly, then within 50 stage miles the belt snapped!! - on a nearly 5 figure engine!!

Fortunately he 'got away with it' with no further damage but it goes to prove they do age, there was obviously no visible cracking on the belt before he fitted the engine this year otherwise he would of put a new one on.

The Ford Focus cambelt is roumered to be 10 years or 100,000 miles......damned if i'd let one go that long?

I presume this is because the belt wouldn't drive the water pump and injectors like the PD's do?

I thought the ford focuses had chains?