Hi guys,

 

Please can you help my thinking?

 

I’ve phoned my local Skoda dealer regarding my next service, and when it would be due!  I informed them the following;

 

1^st  serviced 15.07.11 @ 18628miles.

 

2^nd  serviced 13.03.13 @ 34669miles. with basically oil, filter and bodywork check.

 

They advised:

 

1. As cars current mileage is now 41,000 miles, I assumed that my next service would be due at 44,669.. however I’m on variable servicing, so could be longer, and need to basically wait for the service light, is that correct? My next service is a bigger one at £249

 

1. However, they ‘recommend’ a timing belt at 4 years old…   at £399 this is a hell of a cost for a recommendation?

 

So, basically I’m sat here kicking myself for not checking this… I bought this car for reliability, and to circumvent the massive repair bills on my old Vectra. However, I’m now sat here looking at a patenting £650 worth of work need doing!

 

What would you guys think? timing belt sooner? Or wait?  Is 4 years really necessary? And how long can I go before next service?

 

Thanks for any help in advance!

 

Mike

is it every 4 years or 40,000 miles for the belt, what ever comes first

It's 4 years or 60,000 miles whichever comes first.

 

They have been know to snap before the recomended mileage but after the recomended time.

 

Is it really worth the risk?

 

You would also have no comeback on Skoda if it were to snap where as if you have it done and it snaps you have some leverage against them.

 

Water pump is advisable at the same time too.

 

Also if you're out of warranty a decent independant could better that price.

 

Phil

I thought the CR t-belt had a longer mileage interval (160,000km or more) but the time interval was still fairly short.

Thanks guys, well I have a private warranty, but it's only valid if I keep up my services! Looking at my count down on dash, got 403 days or 12000 miles till next service! So that's a pressure off!

But will book in for timing belt now

If it's a cr diesel it's 120k miles, no time limit. Skoda UK will say it's 4years to bleed money out of you but curiously the rest of the world has no limit. Make of that what you will

It's been done to death on here.

VW have just changed their recommendation on timing belts to 5 years and ..whatever miles...whichever comes first

Skoda have not changed theirs yet...So with VW's having the same engines, why hasn't Skoda updated their recommendation from 4 to 5 yet?

This is interesting... Thanks guys!

Really not sure what to do now? are other briskoda members not doing their timing belt at 40k then? I feel like I'm in a situation where I need to pay £400 quid just because deals says so.. When my car is actually fine?

Bit annoying this really :( wish I'd Checked now! It's not that can't afford to do it, just loathes me to waste money if not needed?

Skoda uk say every 4 years......jrw is the only person who says there is no time interval(this has been done to death so many times now).......its up to you if you want to spend the money or leave it & hope it doesnt fail & leave you with a big repair bill.....the timing belt is a service item so if your not going to replace it then why bother changing the oil etc.....mine was replaced at 4 years old & will be replaced again at 8 years old. 

Skoda uk say every 4 years......jrw is the only person who says there is no time interval(this has been done to death so many times now).......its up to you if you want to spend the money or leave it & hope it doesnt fail & leave you with a big repair bill.....the timing belt is a service item so if your not going to replace it then why bother changing the oil etc.....mine was replaced at 4 years old & will be replaced again at 8 years old.

ahem, not just me but the service book and the rest of the Skoda network. UK is the only one that states 4 years. Email Skoda.cz, they'll tell you the same as me.

OP its up to you what you want to do.your dealer has said every 4 years......im not going to get into another pointless argument with jrw who we all know is going to run his cambelt until 120k miles without changing it then if it fails before then he is going to sue skoda.....blah blah blah..........

Edited 17 February, 201412 yr by mikey vrs

More fool you is what I say. What happened to standing up for your rights in this country? The cr engine is in its 5th year now? (At least) so why does the new octavia 150 cr which I had as a loaner the other week state exactly the same as my service book? 120k miles with no time limit. If it was 4years, they have had 5years to make a simple amendment or include an addendum to the book.

rip off Britain. Amazes me people trust dealers on a subject like this when they don't know their backside from their elbow when it comes to their own cars. Every dealer I went to about buying my octavia and fabia knew less than me about the things. Also the same situation with the recent tyre problem I had with the fabia which ended up with me telling them the solution.

I edited my spelling mistake earlier thanks(what thats got to do with a cambelt i have no idea!) ..........i dont really care what you do with your car but dont keep giving out bad advice to other people......im done with this now :zzz: ........time to block you...........

Edited 17 February, 201412 yr by mikey vrs

I edited my spelling mistake earlier thanks(what thats got to do with a cambelt i have no idea!) ..........i dont really care what you do with your car but dont keep giving out bad advice to other people......im done with this now :zzz: ........time to block you...........

also edited my post to reflect that. Good at least now you won't reply drivel to all my posts

Not bad advice, just factual. Are UK cambelts different to German ones? Think not.

Plenty of cam tensioner failures on the tsi engines on this forum. Can't say I've seen a tensioner or belt failure on a cr. Sure it would have been posted on here. Doing a Google search doesn't yield anything on vw or audi forums either. Make of that what you will.

You say you bought the Octavia to avoid the massive repair bills you've suffered in the past with a Vauxhall Vectra?

 

Preventative measures are what makes one car more reliable than another, i.e. frequent servicing as per the manufacturers recommendations.

 

The car is four years old and you have covered a not-insignificant 41,000 miles. In this time the car has been serviced only twice.

 

May be its just me but I think that the extended service intervals available on the Octavia have already served you very well and you have paid out very little to keep the car maintained.

 

Skoda even offer two different service intervals to suit your typical driving patterns and budgets. They also offer service plans to help spread the costs of servicing which allows for reduced costs.

 

The two types of servicing are as follows:

 

1) Fixed / minor service. 12 months or 10,000 miles, whichever is reached first. Recommended for low annual mileage / short or irregular journeys.

 

2) Variable / major service. Up to approx. 20,000 miles or 24 months. The car monitors useage, journey durations, oil viscosity etc. and decides itself when it needs servicing. Recommended for high / motorway mileage, regular use and offers reduced servicing costs for lease cars / fleets.

 

You are already on the variable / extended servicing. Judging by your mileage (approx. 10K / year) you would be better suited to the fixed servicing intervals to ensure the car is checked over at least once a year and the engine / turbo is able to benefit from more regular fresh oil.

 

This is the best way to give the car the highest chance of a longer life.

 

Skoda UK stipulate a 4 year interval for the cambelt. Righty or wrongly this is how it is. Ignore it if you wish but you do it at your own risk. Personally for the sake of £349 every four years I've no issues changing the cambelt. Let's face it a typical Octavia isn't going to see more than three cambelts in its life.

 

You can see what is included in the fixed and variable servicing here. Note the extras on the variable service go no where near justifying the extra £120. Another reason why you should stick to the fixed servicing and have the air and fuel filters changed every other year.

 

http://www.skoda.co.uk/owners/service-and-maintenance/national-pricing/servicing

Edited 17 February, 201412 yr by silver1011

I have done 34,000 in 4 years...probably will do 5000 max in the next year

I have told my dealer that I will change the belt in 12 months time..just like VW

They told me that it will only be a matter of time until Skoda follow suit

To MCD: IMO I would wait another 12 months too

At no point, when I was booking my car in for a Major Service, DSG gearbox oil change and regassing of the AirCon, did they tell me it needed a Cambelt...I asked them......."Yes Sir.... its 4 years old"....but the manual says 70,000 miles...no mention of time at all

BTW...all this as per Skoda Service means over £850 inc. of Cambelt and pump

Just to add, my car was bought from dealer a, warranty work carried out at dealer b, service carried out at dealer c and another service at dealer d. The most recent of which was last March.

All four of these dealers have my contact details and all four of these dealers as well as Skoda UK Send me promotional literature, the purchasing dealer reminded me about my first mot last year and dealer c emails me at least once a week with offers.

Not one of these has mentioned in person, by post, by phone or my email that my cambelt interval is incorrect in the service book and has been amended to 4years. If I wasn't tech savvy and knew about cars, knew about this forum, took a modicum in interest in my car like many hundreds of thousands of people in this country how the hell would 'the normal' person know that it's 4years? Don't say you should ask as we all know this is utter rubbish. Swmbo wouldn't even know what a cambelt did let alone it is a serviceable part.

So 4 dealers and Skoda UK have all had nearly 4years to amend my service book. So yeah, should it fail I will see them in court, rightly or wrongly, I'm prepared to stand up for my rights and the dealers failure on duty of care.

Be interested to see any reports of cr belt failure?

I agree it is suspicious that Skoda UK don't make more of an effort to document the standard 4 year interval. It certainly seems strange that it isn't referenced in the latest owners manuals.

 

I've found that the dealers tend to fall over themselves to remind me of the 4 year interval as they are keen for the additional business so I'm sure even the most non mechanically-minded owners would be made aware of the requirement when the car was booked in for its regular service.

 

The cambelt isn't due until the car is out of warranty (both mileage and time) so a failure on a car that hadn't had it changed at the recommended four year interval isn't going to see much sympathy from Skoda UK anyway.

 

A cambelt that is changed at the four year interval which then fails prematurely on a car out of warranty may however lead to a goodwill gesture from Skoda UK toward the cost of repair.

 

It's a risk, one that can only be determined by each of us on an individual basis. I will have my belt changed as per Skoda UK's advice but also can understand why those who don't choose not to.

Edited 17 February, 201412 yr by silver1011

Thanks guys!

Just to clarify, I bought the car Private, last month on 39k! It's my fault for not checking! Just never owned a car that needed timing belt done at 41k which is where the car is at now, all be it also 4 years old!

All my vauxhalls have been at 80k for timing belt.. It's just annoying as I buy a decent car l and. Warranty to get round unpredictable bills and now I need to find £399. But it won't Kai be that as common sense says water pump at same time!

Some angry people on here though? But genuinely, thanks for the help.

Mike

Yes Mike. Some very aggressive posts ...not sure why

If VW say 5 years...That's good enough for me

If you intend to keep the car long term or until it dies then my advice would be to change the cambelt sooner rather than later.

 

What's you annual mileage? If it is average (approx. 12K/year) then it is unlikely that you are going to reach the next mileage interval for a second belt change so you at least know you won't need another one for at least another 4 years.

 

Or looking at it another way its an extra £100 / year.

I agree it is suspicious that Skoda UK don't make more of an effort to document the standard 4 year interval. It certainly seems strange that it isn't referenced in the latest owners manuals.

I've found that the dealers tend to fall over themselves to remind me of the 4 year interval as they are keen for the additional business so I'm sure even the most non mechanically-minded owners would be made aware of the requirement when the car was booked in for its regular service.

The cambelt isn't due until the car is out of warranty (both mileage and time) so a failure on a car that hadn't had it changed at the recommended four year interval isn't going to see much sympathy from Skoda UK anyway.

A cambelt that is changed at the four year interval which then fails prematurely on a car out of warranty may however lead to a goodwill gesture from Skoda UK toward the cost of repair.

It's a risk, one that can only be determined by each of us on an individual basis. I will have my belt changed as per Skoda UK's advice but also can understand why those who don't choose not to.

non mechanically minded? None of the dealers know I'm mechanically minded? Do you think they assume I know?

You're missing the point somewhat. I've not been told, it's only because I'm on here I know Skoda UK are stating 4 years. If the Internet didn't exist, I wouldn't know.

My other half, her mother, my dad, and probably most people I works with wouldn't know that a cambelt needs replacing and if they did they would check the book and rely on that.

The fact that they have had at least 5 years now to amend this, as well as seat, audi and vw as I can assume these state the same, yet they haven't. I can only presume it's because they are produced to an English translation from the German or Czech equivalent as this is how it is in the rest of the world. Truth is that people in the UK are the only people that don't complain, accept what 'professionals' tell them and love to bend over and get ripped off.

I work in IT and have done for 14 years now and it's the same story here. I know a pc and laptop inside out yet people would rather listen to a 19year old on commission in pc world than to me, but instead end up with a totally wrongly spec'd up pc with all the av, warranty extension, accidental care(insert any other pc world rip off here). Same story here, people just blindly listen to the dealer and don't question it. Good little money spinner for the dealers.

No anger in this thread from me, I am just standing up for what my rights as a consumer are.

I'm not suggesting that you aren't mechanically minded.

 

You suggested that it was by being tech savy that you learnt about the four year interval. I was suggesting that in my experience you don't have to be mechanically minded, interested in cars or be a frequent user of online forums to know that Skoda's cambelt interval is four years.

 

The reason for this is because I was made aware when the car was booked in for its fourth service by the dealer and it could therefore be assumed that this would be the case for most customers using franchised main dealers - mainly because it is in their interest to promote this policy in an effort to generate additional revenue.

I'm not suggesting that you aren't mechanically minded.

You suggested that it was by being tech savy that you learnt about the four year interval. I was suggesting that in my experience you don't have to be mechanically minded, interested in cars or be a frequent user of online forums to know that Skoda's cambelt interval is four years.

The reason for this is because I was made aware when the car was booked in for its fourth service by the dealer and it could therefore be assumed that this would be the case for most customers using franchised main dealers - mainly because it is in their interest to promote this policy in an effort to generate additional revenue.

No, didn't mean me, I meant it sounded like the dealers only tell non mechanically minded people that they need a cambelt. As I said, 4 dealers and no mention of cambelts. Guessing it's a similar story around the country.

A different example of this is when I was waiting for the tyres to be checked on the fabia a woman come in 'with an orange light on dash' which was clearly the dpf light. She clearly hadn't looked in book and dealers first response was to book it in for diagnostics rather than even taking the 30 seconds to look at to say it's the dpf and take it for a blast then come back if it's still on.

I have a 2011 vrs and been told I have a chain not a belt so it does not need changing.... Can anyone confirm this???