I have a non-Skoda warranty on my Superb and I wondered what the warranty requirements would be versus the cam belt change at 4 years or 80k miles. Here's what I asked (Warranty Company name is changed):-

Good afternoon Warranty Company.

I have my 55 plate Skoda Superb 2.5TDi Elegance covered with yourselves for warranty to the end of September 2009, reg

number xx55xxx. Please could you advise me when a cam belt change would be

required on this vehicle for me to maintain my warranty cover to September 2010

please? My car handbook says that the belt needs changing at 80k miles and

specifies no time limit on this, but my Skoda dealer says it needs changing

when the car is 4 years old in September 2009 even though the miles will be

~45k. What does Warranty Company require from me to maintain my warranty

please, to go "by the book" or to "do what the dealer says"? Thank you.

Regards

Fred.

The Warranty Company says-

Dear Fred,

We require you to "go by the book" for this one. If it say's 80k before the

belt need changing that don't have it done until then unless you really feel

you need to.

In my personal opinion it sounds like the garage is trying to pull a fast one

getting you to have a very expensive service done before you need to.

I hope this helps

Regards

What does the panel think to that response? It wasn't what I expected at all.

Edited 28 April, 200917 yr by Fred Bloggs

The 4 year stipulation for cambelt changes is a VAG Milton Keynes scam. It does not appear in any properly printed data provided with the vehicles nor does it apply anywhere else in the world as far as I am aware.

It's a clever trick - it doesn't affect the high mileage fleet market and it catches private owners whilst the vehicles are still new enough for them to instinctively consider going to the dealer for this work. The "love" curve on vehicles is very steep - at or beyond 5 years, most sensible people would go to an independent.

VAG buy belt kits in vast numbers - the parts cost to a dealer is probably about £25 and the labour cost (as opposed to charge) is minimal, given mechanics' wages. The high overheads of glass palace dealers is their own stupid problem.

M-K are programmed to raid your wallet - so be wise to it.

rotodiesel.

Edited 28 April, 200917 yr by rotodiesel

Thanks Roto, it's as I suspected then. Having said all that, I am tempted to get it done but maybe in January 2010 rather than September 2009, since the car was bought by me in January 2006 with 8 miles on it but it was registered in September 2005 by SUK. Whichever way I choose, I will not be using a franchised dealer for this, they're too expensive.

I spoke to fisher bros and preston cars about this very matter. The mileage on my 52 skoda was 51k when i bought it 4 weeks ago. The timing belt had been changed in 2006 with the mileage at just 36k! i was a little suprised at this so asked the dealer who carried out the works and preston cars why it was changed. Response: Belt is changed at either 80k or 4 years. Whichever comes first. Now either they are trying to con people or ..... well cant think of a defense for them... Not too sure how the warrenty is affected as the handbook just states 80k.

As you have a V6, choose your independent very carefully as it's a pig of a job on these engines. Get the water pump changed at the same time and check that the operators have VAGCOM or equivalent to re-time the pump. "Mark and pray" won't work on these engines.

The dealers mess these up too, sometimes...

rotodiesel.

ive in the past got all parts from GSF spareparts (inclusive of rollers, belt, tensioners and metal perpeller water pump), handed over to local dealer and checked up on the progress throughout the day (took day off). worked well for me.

Edited 28 April, 200917 yr by m_zafar

As you have a V6, choose your independent very carefully as it's a pig of a job on these engines. Get the water pump changed at the same time and check that the operators have VAGCOM or equivalent to re-time the pump. "Mark and pray" won't work on these engines.

The dealers mess these up too, sometimes...

rotodiesel.

I'm from near Manchester and I have been advised to try Awesome GTI in Irlam for the job. To be honest, I am a bit nervous of this, as it is a lot of cash/big job to give to a garage I've not used before.

Any other recommendations for Cheshire/Manchester area? thanks.

I'm from near Manchester and I have been advised to try Awesome GTI in Irlam for the job. To be honest, I am a bit nervous of this, as it is a lot of cash/big job to give to a garage I've not used before.

Any other recommendations for Cheshire/Manchester area? thanks.

It's 422 quid at VW, that's belt,pump,tensioner and aux belts including vat and you get a stamp in ya book. hth.

£350 to £400 or so seems to be the going rate at independant workshops so £422 at VW isnt that bad

Whether you think it's a scam or not, I would never buy a car that hadn't been serviced according to the manufacturers spec.

The belt that came off my 4-year old Octavia vRS was knackered, and it had only done 55k.

I guess the lesson is, better safer than sorry

OK - Manufacturer's spec. or importer's spec? Read the printed documentation which comes with the vehicle - not the scrappy bit of paper from M-K.

Why aren't there 2 English language versions of the service book - one with a 4 year change stipulation and one without? Because the 4 year stipulation comes from M-K and not Wolfsburg.

rotodiesel.

Again... the belt that came off my 4 year old, 55k mile car was knackered

£350 to £400 or so seems to be the going rate at independant workshops so £422 at VW isnt that bad

I was quoted 322 without the auxbelts by a local indy, he couldn't do the job for about 10 days and I was getting a bit nervous about it all so I went to VW, mainly because I have a lot more faith in the VW dealer locally than the Skoda one, also the Superb being a Passat I figured the VW guy's would have done more of them in their time, plus there's no arguing if the new one should fail within a certain time where an indy would be chasing his part supplier for authorisation to repair the engine at cost to them, for anyone whose near the miles or time, if you unclip the top half of the cambelt cover you can then rotate the engine for a visual check to see if the belt is wearing out.

Hmmm, I'm thinking of delaying the work till Jan 2010 as the car was effectively new when I collected it with 8 miles on the clock on 2nd Jan 2006, it was registered in late Sept 2005 but it wasn't delivered to the dealer (as a pre-registered "new" car) until mid December 2005. However, I am nervous about the issue. At least it seems the warranty would cover it if it broke.

If it is the UK arm of the brand that have told dealer to advise a cambelt change at 4 years then its not the dealers fault is it.

i will be suprised if its covered

If it is the UK arm of the brand that have told dealer to advise a cambelt change at 4 years then its not the dealers fault is it.

Nobody said it was the dealers "fault". If it's 4 years why doesn't all the information in the owners manuals actually say 4 years? It says 80k miles, that's all. Where's the published piece of paper that says its 4 years? I'd love to see one!

i will be suprised if its covered

Please refer to my opening post. The after market warranty provider says it's covered up to 80k miles because that's what the book says. I'm not making it up. That's pasted straight from their email to me.

Whats in the book is not neccessarily the current state of affairs. For example if you read a 2001 service book for a 1.8T octy vRS it says change is at 110K miles, however due a high number of failures it was revised to 60K miles/4 years. The book however will still say 110K miles, but the dealers computer/service paperwork will have the correct details.

Your warranty will require servicing to manufacturers guidelines, these are not always as printed in the book. If the belt were to fail, the warranty company will look for every single loophole to avoid paying out. Also check the small print, you will find that there is a claim limit and this will never cover the cost of the engine/labour even if they were to pay out. For the cost to change the belt I would rather have piece of mind.

Yes, I can see where you're coming from, it seems I might just have to bite the bullet in September.

Yes, I can see where you're coming from, it seems I might just have to bite the bullet in September.

I certainly would if I were you Fred. Mine is due in November and I have a Skoda warranty (extended) at the moment - and I have been told to have it done at 4 yrs. It has done 28k miles at present. I would be interested in what you actually pay for this job as £400 odd seems very reasonable. My quote from Skoda was getting on for £800 for all this work. They did say when the time is due they will give me a good discount??? Do the VW garage know it is a V6 TDI as these are the most expensive engine to have cam belt changed?

I certainly would if I were you Fred. Mine is due in November and I have a Skoda warranty (extended) at the moment - and I have been told to have it done at 4 yrs. It has done 28k miles at present. I would be interested in what you actually pay for this job as £400 odd seems very reasonable. My quote from Skoda was getting on for £800 for all this work. They did say when the time is due they will give me a good discount??? Do the VW garage know it is a V6 TDI as these are the most expensive engine to have cam belt changed?

Call your local VW dealer Johan, mine was 50 quid less than Skoda wanted on my 1.9.

The Skoda dealer told me it would be around £800 but they also told me that they had never changed a water pump on a 2.5TDi which leads me to believe that I would be better taking it elsewhere if I can find anywhere with more experience of this engine.

Nobody said it was the dealers "fault". If it's 4 years why doesn't all the information in the owners manuals actually say 4 years? It says 80k miles, that's all. Where's the published piece of paper that says its 4 years? I'd love to see one!

One thing that I have never read about in any VAG forums, is any comments from VAG techs or VAG indies that support just leaving the belts idlers and tensioners for any longer than the revised service periods. They would all have to be in with this scam if we were to believe what is being suggested. I got my 2000MY Passat 2.8 V6 changed roughly at the correct time, also the same with the 2003MY Polo 1.4, I saw all of the parts that came off the Polo 1.4 and they looked and felt okay - but for how much longer would they stay that way? This is one piece of advice you ignore at your peril - but you could be lucky. Remember warranty people in general operate a bit like leasing people, so that means that your engine might not get rebuilt as well as it should, but they would return it to you running! This is not the first time a car company revised its "advice" wrt cambelts, I used to run a 1991 VX Cav GSI and VX dropped the period from something like 100,000+miles - no time period down to 65,000miles 6years back in 1997 - I think, I booked my car in as fast as I could after finding that out! Also I had a 1995MY Fiesta 1.6SI, it cambelt change period was 95,000miles no time period - I think, I did plan to run that car for a maximum of 120,000miles 10 years, so did the smart thing and got the belt changed at about 70,000miles - I was taking the view that I was going to end up paying for a belt change on that car so did it at a time that played safe and gave me some use of the new belt. The buggar was that I flushed the coolant system out to play safe a year later and that made the pump leak - so it got a new pump and another new belt - remember water pumps are still causing concerns as well and they can trash the belt!

Edited 1 May, 200917 yr by rum4mo