So, the octy is due a cam belt soon.

Would you only ever have this done by a VW specialist, or possibly a local garage that you trust? Or can any garage do it?

I have a Bosch service centre near where I live, and another near work. I've used the one near work, but they tried to tell me I didn't need pd oil......

I'm thinking this is not a job to use a garage the first time for. Unit 18 are a good £100 cheaper than the VW or skoda dealers in my area, but they are over 150 miles away.

Raf_75 has told me about a guy in York who does all the local taxis, but this would be my first experience of him. There is also a local family garage that I would like to support.

Is the pd engine any more tricky to do cam belt on?

Edited 15 February, 201115 yr by 2SkodaFamily

UNIT 18 are well worth the trip mate, I've had work done by them and they will be doing all my suspension next month along with a cambelt change next year.

It's defo worth getting someone you can trust to carry-out the work

Skoda dealers aren't the most capable, but atleast the work is guaranteed! I had my first cambelt change done at a dealership, and they did it OK, just left silly things like engine covers not attached properly and timing bung left in the scuttle, and greasy hand marks all over it!

For my clutch and flywheel I went to Awesome (Irlam, Manchester), because I didn't fully trust the dealership to do things properly.

For my next cambelt I will either do it myself, or take it over to Awesome for the day.

I think specialists are the way forth....

Mines due very soon, gonna have a word with my m8 and see if he thinks we can do it. We've done all the work on my car ourselves so far

I have a Bosch service centre near where I live, and another near work. I've used the one near work, but they tried to tell me I didn't need pd oil......

Thats not all that wrong, the VAG oil Synta Platinum covers petrol and diesel engines so they may have meant that .....maybe lol

Think I'm going to go with my first instinct; Unit 18. I'll combine it with a trip to pick up or drop off my kids in Bedford, that will mean its not a special trip. Also want some alignment advice form them too.....

Cheers fellas.

My 3rd cambelt change is approaching shortly, and I am planning on doing it myself :-)

My 3rd cambelt change is approaching shortly, and I am planning on doing it myself :-)

I'm not that confident! Might have a go at rear bushes and front wishbones later in the year, but I'm a bit nervous about getting too involved with the engine...

Think I'm going to go with my first instinct; Unit 18. I'll combine it with a trip to pick up or drop off my kids in Bedford, that will mean its not a special trip. Also want some alignment advice form them too.....

Cheers fellas.

Good choice, from the looks of it they are moving to Milton Keynes soon.

I'm not that confident! Might have a go at rear bushes and front wishbones later in the year, but I'm a bit nervous about getting too involved with the engine...

I do allocate myself a whole weekend to do the job, so as not to rush myself. Plus it can be cold down in the garage! The last time I did it, I used the haynes manual and page from some car magazine which covered the cambelt change in a TDI golf. Hardest bit was tensioning the tensioner, as my first fabricated tool was not up to the job. Having skinny hands is a definite bonus on the diesels, not sure if the same applies to the petrols.

I have rear bushes to do at somepoint too. I was going to fit the fabia ones, but I might go for some poly ones, as they are easier to put in

Talking of wheel alignment are ATS etc ok?

UNIT 18 are well worth the trip mate, I've had work done by them and they will be doing all my suspension next month along with a cambelt change next year.

It's defo worth getting someone you can trust to carry-out the work

+ 1 Ally did mine as well at 38K. Showed me all the bits he removed and the new parts before fitting them.

I will be going back there when the next change is due.

Peter

Talking of wheel alignment are ATS etc ok?

Depends if you want 2 wheel or 4 wheel alignment.

Those sorts of places are ok for front toe etc. I've got a rear camber problem so may need shimming that the tyre places likely wouldn't touch.

Edited 15 February, 201115 yr by 2SkodaFamily

unit 18 is a good choice ally and sam will see you right very good guys

I always get simon at performance driven in taunton to look after my cars really honest sound guy, and really looks after my car

I did my own on my vrs when i got it just to be safe and it was a right bitch, Ive done a couple of bora diesel ones aswell and there abit of a pain aswell,

There not to bad to do its just you carnt get engine mounting out from side of engine and inner wing, you have to work round it

Word of caution re PD cam belts.

Up until six months ago I'd never done a PD cam belt, water pump etc...now I've done two, both on BLT engines.

I went to my local Skoda dealer to buy the crankshaft locking tool I was told by the parts guy it was the first one he had sold. we were joined by one of the service tech's, who said he had done hundreds of cam belts and he had never used a crankshaft locking tool and neither did any of the other tech's at the garage. He confirmed that they use tipex to mark the crank and camshaft orientation.

Now at the time I was'nt sure what the implications were of what he was saying re not using the crank locking tool, but now after doing two myself I understand fully what the implications are....and its not good.

The crank and camshaft locking tools are required to make fine adjustments to the crankshaft, camshaft/unit injector timings, and compensate for the inevitable manufacturing variances in the toothed camshaft drive belt lengths, as per VAG maintenance procedures.

The engines will run OK the tipex method but what you dont know is, is the engine timed correctly taking into account the spec of the new belt in relation to the one it replaced. And remember that any variances in belt lengths are multiplied by two due to the cam shaft rotating at half crankshaft speed.

One further twist to this tale occured a few weeks ago at a local council MOT centre....I was talking to a tech from a local indy VAG garage who had took a taxi for MOT, and he told me they also use tipex or paint when they change the cam belt cos it saves a lot of time and fecking about.

So I would recommend you always check your garage has the tools to do the job correctly and make sure they use them.

And when you get the car back, lift the bonnet, remove the upper camshaft cover, jack up the O/S/F wheel, engage 4th gear and rotate the wheel clockwise (by hand) until the camshaft has completed one full revolution and check for tipex or paint on the camshaft pully.

You should not find any tipex or paint, its not needed if you use the correct tools....if you do find some, then you have just been ripped off.

HTH

Bill.

Hi Bill,

This is very interesting. Is the PD engine different to a "normal" tdi engine?

I'm afraid I don't know enough about diesel timing to fully understand what you're saying, but it wouldn't be the first time a garage (or even a dealer) bodged a job to save a bit of time, which wouldn't be so bad if you didn't know that they're going to charge the full amount of book time anyway! Buggers!

speak to Ally at unit18 I'm sure he won't Bodge it mate.

speak to Ally at unit18 I'm sure he won't Bodge it mate.

Agreed, the reputation is second to none so far as I can tell. I'm looking forward to it.

Actually, I've been going on the basis of changing after 60k miles, but their website says 80k for the PD?