Bought privately a 1.9tdi recently that had a stamp but no receipt from Arnold Clarke to say a new belt was fitted 11k ago (93k) Popped the cover last night and it looks very original to me - can any one enlighten me please?

http://i26.tinypic.com/2n0rjp5.jpg

im no expert but it looks like it may be a few years old.

If your near the guarage that did the service that should of had the cam belt replaced, go and ask them. They have to keep records for 7 years so they should know.

by the amount of cracks that can be seen , i'd say that was an old belt , but the writing/marks on the belt look quite clear

is there any spanner marks on the tensioner bolt, cam pulley bolts, or engine mounting bolts ? all these should be removed/undone to do a belt

ring the garage thats done it with the reg, it will be on record

that looks old to me

Agree does look quite old with cracking apearing.I personally would change it

Anyone from "the North" might consider the name of the garage that you mentioned and draw their own conclusions! (that would be the safe bet)

Agree, that looks original. Consider getting it replaced ASAP, as those cracks could cause the belt to fail. It could be that the aux belt was changed and not the cambelt. Arnold Clark have a bit of a bad reputatation, a quick google search will show lots of horror stories.

Just one such site.

http://www.arnoldclark.150m.com/html/mail74.htm