car is booked in on the 29th at the independent my wife is currently working at so fingers crossed they look after her and my pocket

Have a horrible feeling my rear tyres will need replacing too. They are wearing slightly uneven though towards the outer edge :S

I had it done just last week at VW/Skoda garage. I spent £320. Other Skoda garage quoted £420 and independent garage £340 at first but then reduced the price to £260 (cheaper cambelt kit). All prices include a water pump and a full cambelt kit.

As for tyres I'm getting ready for winter ones quite shortly...

That nasty little worm of doubt--called Peace of Mind---has struck again--twice it seems. This scam will run and run. I wonder if the cash and work stream generated by this scam is stopping VAG using chain cams?

This is an Email I sent to Skoda HQ in Mlada Bolaslav

"My car is 4 years old. It has travelled 40,000 Km. I took it to a big local VAG dealer and asked them to change the cam-belt.

They could not understand what I was talking about. They said they would never change a cam-belt until 60,000 km.

I said in UK it is four years. They seemed amazed and 4 different people including a Director of the Company all told me not to worry about years only about distance travelled.

Please can you tell me---Should the cam-belt be changed now the car has is 4 years old or not?

Or should I wait till the car has done 60,000 km?"

This is the reply

"Concerning your question I would like to confirm the statement given to you by our Spanish representative – the replacement of the cam belt depends on the mileage.

In your case – Octavia II 1.9 TDI PD BJB – the interval for the cambelt replacement is on 120.000 km so you still have many kilometres to run...

Best regards,

Customer care"

I don't think there is any other country where the four year time is used. I've heard it said the idea was thought up to give dealers some work and money when they lost work and money when variable service intervals were introduced.

I am happy to go with peace and mind. Skoda UK phoned me following an e-mail and said 4 years so I'm sticking with that.

For sub £300 its not much over 4 years and hopefully I will have a new car before it's due again

A few people posted fairly recently about belts snapping on fairly new cars, so after 4 years and lots of revolutions at high RPM's I have no quarms with changing mine to avoid a dead engine.

If you were buying a 4 year old car first check would be cambelt changed. I know mine would be, and if it wasnt I'd walk.

A few people posted fairly recently about belts snapping on fairly new cars, so after 4 years and lots of revolutions at high RPM's I have no quarms with changing mine to avoid a dead engine.

If you were buying a 4 year old car first check would be cambelt changed. I know mine would be, and if it wasnt I'd walk.

Where? Most the posts I have seen are people moaning about the 40k/4year replacement schedule. Yes im sure a couple of cars out of the thousands will snap before but this would happen across all manufactures. I would say about 90% of skodas will last alot longer than 4 years.

Where? Most the posts I have seen are people moaning about the 40k/4year replacement schedule. Yes im sure a couple of cars out of the thousands will snap before but this would happen across all manufactures. I would say about 90% of skodas will last alot longer than 4 years.

People are so easily bought into the scare tactics of 4 years. I have just had one done on a friends Golf which was registered in Oct 2002 and just done 30k. The mechanic i use said i was in 2 minds to leave it on as it looked as in good nick as the new one he was putting on. So age it seems does not degrade the belt (as confirmed by Continental who produce the belts and the service book, which make no relation to age). Also bear in mind that these belts have no age limit all over the world, and are tested to -20 and +50 C and varying humidity. It is highly unlikely that the British climate is going to degrade a cambelt designed to last in conditions in other countries in the world.

That nasty little worm of doubt--called Peace of Mind---has struck again--twice it seems. This scam will run and run. I wonder if the cash and work stream generated by this scam is stopping VAG using chain cams?

******************

They do use chains on other engines - I seem to recall that some have one chain and some have two. I'm pretty sure my 1.8TSi has a chain not a belt - hope I'm right!

I have a 1.8TSi and it defo has a cam chain. It looks like this.

2.0 tsi is chain driven.

I went for the change at 4 years because skoda dealer has an offer until end of october of 100 pounds off so will be under 300 .mine is on 40k miles and i could wait for the mileage but it will cost more by then ..my view anyway .

I've just replaced my cambelt on my TFSI and it was starting to crack in between all teeth. Mine is exactly 4 yrs old and has 55K.

boo, as I suspected 2 new tyres but because one had a nail in it so decided to do both as they weren't far off being illegal. Oh well its only money

I can empathise!

I'm succumbing to the 4 year paranoia too. Booked in for next week.

£289 for the timing belt, water pump etc

£68.10 for Haldex clutch service

£169 for major long-life service

Plus just forked out £300 today for the winter tyres & £160 next week for the old Audi alloys they are going on to be refurbed!

Pretty happy with the prices but just not all at once.

Been hanging on to find out if I still had a job.

Blimey that's quite a bit. I'm glad my wife works at the garage as they gave her a good deal

I have a 1.8TSi and it defo has a cam chain. It looks like this.

That looks like it will last quite a while, especially at my under 7000 miles a year!

Hello all,

I've just replaced the cam belt on my 56 plate (07) Octavia 1.9 Tdi. I commute 100 miles a day, so peace of mind is high on my list of priorities.

I use an excellent independent mechanic who charged me £300 for changing the belt, water pump & tensioners as well as a full service including oil & filter change, air, pollen & fuel filter replacement and checking the brakes. Oh, and he had it washed too!

When I picked the car up he showed me the belt. Although it looked fine, and would probably have served me well for some time to come, the surface of the belt was 'crazed' i.e. displaying tiny cracks across the whole surface of the belt.

Now I'm no engineer, however, for peace of mind, I consider it money well spent when you consider the consequences of a broken belt.

People are so easily bought into the scare tactics of 4 years. I have just had one done on a friends Golf which was registered in Oct 2002 and just done 30k. The mechanic i use said i was in 2 minds to leave it on as it looked as in good nick as the new one he was putting on. So age it seems does not degrade the belt (as confirmed by Continental who produce the belts and the service book, which make no relation to age). Also bear in mind that these belts have no age limit all over the world, and are tested to -20 and +50 C and varying humidity. It is highly unlikely that the British climate is going to degrade a cambelt designed to last in conditions in other countries in the world.

Again with this issue, it's not necessarily the belt itself that would concern me... it's the tensioners.

To me it's not a scare tactic as I've personally seen people's cars, having done under the recommended mileage and between 4-6yrs in age, where the belt is in fine condition but the tensioners have failed. Worst example was a Lupo GTI which required a new engine. Also, it doesn't add up that this replacement schedule is designed to 'scare', as a lot of VAG dealers across the board don't seem to adhere to, or know about, the correct age/mileage limits on cambelts anyway.

As I've said before, people are of course responsible for their own cars and it's upto them how the manage and look after them, but I know which path I'll be following

Again with this issue, it's not necessarily the belt itself that would concern me... it's the tensioners.

To me it's not a scare tactic as I've personally seen people's cars, having done under the recommended mileage and between 4-6yrs in age, where the belt is in fine condition but the tensioners have failed. Worst example was a Lupo GTI which required a new engine. Also, it doesn't add up that this replacement schedule is designed to 'scare', as a lot of VAG dealers across the board don't seem to adhere to, or know about, the correct age/mileage limits on cambelts anyway.

As I've said before, people are of course responsible for their own cars and it's upto them how the manage and look after them, but I know which path I'll be following

I've just had a quote off the dealer for £482 for cambelt & water pump - they said it's due as the car is 4 years old - anyone know any good independents around or in St.Helens; I've seen ads for Andy's VW or the VW Centre; anyone got any experience of using them? Cheers!

John1280

Care to share the details of the dealer inc. location with the special offer until the end of October.

Thanks

It is always possible to find early examples of failures, of cambelts and associated parts, on newish low mileage cars, it happened to me on a one year old volvo after only 9,000 miles and on that occasion the engine was wrecked but rebuilt under warranty of course. As a precaution on a 4 year old car I will be having it done, have I given in to scare tactics... ? possibly but what is the alternative ? Save the money and take a chance on much greater expense, nuisance value etc... the cost of the belt and pump replacement seems to have come down a lot anyway and my bigger concern is going somewhere where I can be confident that the work will be done properly for a fair price... and don't garages etc always look at you as if you are insane if you presume to know more than they do about faults, servicing requirements ???

Even if there were complete statistics available showing actual cambelt failures on any particular engine, driving use, temperature blah blah which gave a statistical likelihood of cambelt failure on your own engine and it was... say 1 in 120.... would you take the chance, or spend the money once in four years to be safer ?