Have been reading the other thread regarding Tsi engines blowing up due to cam belt timing issues, worrying about what to do, and have now just got a letter from my local dealer stating that "Skoda have changed their policy regarding the routine replacement of engine cam belts and now recommend this work to be carried out every 4 years from the date of first registration", which is me as of next month.

So my questions are, if anyone knows the answers:

1. Will changing the belt cure the known fault?

2. If it is now a 4 year replacement part is it now a 'traditional' replaceable belt rather than the existing chain that gets fitted?

3. How much is this going to set me back (my dealer asks that I phone for a 'unique quote' which hardly fills me with confidence!)?

4. I've currently got an extended warranty via Warranty Direct (until 2015), if I don't take Skoda up on their 'unique quote' and take my chances with the existing 'lifelong' chain would that invalidate my warranty (I am assuming that it would as it would not be classed as properly maintained, but wondered anyway)?

TSi doesn't have a timing belt - it has a timing chain - which should be fit for the life of the engine - the issue is that the non-return ratchet on the tensioner can fail and when the oil pressure is lost when the engine is switched off - the tensioner can allow the timing chain to become too loose and the timing to jump.

I would ring Customer Services and quote the letter asking then why you need to change a timing belt on an engine fitted with a timing chain.

Yes, I didn't think it had a belt, so this sounds like a tensioner replacement. The letter goes on to say that: "Failure to maintain the cam belt correctly can lead to it snapping without warning, this in turn causingh consequential (expensive) damage to the engine. Replacement is a skilled job that is best carried out by a franchised dealer."

Now, this to me sounds like a recall notice. And yet, Skoda have dressed it up by stating that the Tsi timing chains are now treated the same way as the old tfsi belts and need regular changing - at our expense. So is it just me, or have Skoda finally admitted that the Tsi engine has a known (and potentialluy catastrophic) fault but are now getting the punters to shoulder the cost of the necessarfy fix?

Which in itself is a nice little dealer earner given it will I assume effect every Tsi engine from 2009 to 2013 when the MkIII came out, and I guess the Ltd Edition owners are the first batch of owners (as we were the first to get the new Tsi) to be told we need to replace something that was measnt to last the life of the car every 4 years...

So is it just me, or have Skoda finally admitted that the Tsi engine has a known (and potentialluy catastrophic) fault but are now getting the punters to shoulder the cost of the necessarfy fix?

...or is it yet another variation of the 4 year SUK timing belt replacement con, not carried out anywhere else in Europe, not making Skoda Auto update the service manuals during the 10+ years the con has been going on?

Must be UK weather and a particular amount of rain... If only it rained more like in Ireland, or less like in mainland, we'd be OK. As it stands, we really do have to run to SUK dealerships every 4 years and spend money like SU©Kers. Especially now, when even belts last for 130k miles, and chains can double that easily.

/rant end

If it was a genuine recall, they'd do it free of charge.

Edited 11 February, 201313 yr by dieselV6

Sorry OP, but there is no where in you quotes stating 'timing chain' or 'timing chain tensioner' so it probably relates to the TFSI and not TSI engine? As Paul has mentioned call Skoda CS and confirm, given your car was one of the first to get the TSI I guess their dbs is either not up to date... (a worry if it is!!) or its an automated letter sent out that they haven't taken the TSI owners off the list!