Hi folks

 

Replaced my old Mpi estate today with a 2006 57000 miles 1.9TDI elegance estate. Plenty torque as I hoped!

 

Seems a good car with one owner up until 4/5 months ago. Not entirely sure why recent owner didn't keep it long. Best thing today before purchase was the garage owner who looked after all it's life confirming it was his uncle's car and that he'd passed away last year. I had rung the garage regarding whether a timing belt had been done. It's last service with them was 51000 miles and it looks like the belt hasn't been changed.

 

I'm just looking through the things I got with the car and a Skoda service sheet says the TDI's after 08/2003 need a belt every 80,000 miles (says the ones up to 07/2003 should be changed at 60,000)

 

So 80,000 miles for my car? There was no mention of time on the sheet, just mileage. I don't hugely want to plough the necessary funds into a belt change. Thoughts? Thanks

Over ten years old and it's a PD100, I'd certainly change it if I were you.

+++1

That's not what I want to hear! Haha thanks

 

The car looks extremely clean underneath, looks like original exhaust, so it doesn't look exposed to a lot of weathering so I can't necessarily imagine the belt suffering perishing etc but I take on board what you're saying. For some bizarre reason a year old engine drive belt gave out on my Mpi a few weeks ago so I guess that incident (and breakdown it meant) should be saying something to me.

I pretty certain that when we bought our 2007 1.9tdi ( from new ) we were told cambelt change every 4 years or 60k miles well it's just on 63k but we have changed belt twice already, best to be safe than sorry, on both changes garage said the belt looked fine but..... changed water pump and tensioner on the second change next belt change due 2019 guessing we will still have the car as we do low mileage so modern dpf issues are more likely to be an issue

It's a little bit difficult to know which way to go. On a TDI forum I read 100k is without a shadow of doubt change time but it sounds uncommon for a belt to give out under this mileage, 80k being safer. I'm partly seeking opinion on this because it's going to take me a while to reach 80,000 from 57,000. If a bigger mileage was anticipated I would change it now but I feel I may not still have the car in 2/3 years

Age, not mileage.

Yes as others have posted - the belts degrade with age/time - definitely better to change at max 5 years.

Think i'd best see about getting it changed. 

 

Peace of mind on it worth quite a bit in itself.

 

Thanks

10 hours ago, YS53 said:

Yes as others have posted - the belts degrade with age/time - definitely better to change at max 5 years.

 

...or TWELVE years, as in this case, can't believe how hard he was to persuade, I know the Scots are parsimonius but even so...

Only ELEVEN years if you please! 

 

Lucky got no idea what parsimonius means. Tight? Yep.

 

 

parsimonius  - as Tight as a Yorkshire bloke with DEEP pockets. Or as tight as an Aberdonian, with shorter pockets. Then there's Fife folks, who eat with a long spoon, but hey ,you're from Edinburgh , where everything is slack ( I'm from the west coast ,where we take the mick out of folks from you're parts).

7 minutes ago, VWD said:

parsimonius  - as Tight as a Yorkshire bloke with DEEP pockets. Or as tight as an Aberdonian, with shorter pockets. Then there's Fife folks, who eat with a long spoon, but hey ,you're from Edinburgh , where everything is slack ( I'm from the west coast ,where we take the mick out of folks from you're parts).

 

Haha magic! An islander at heart by looks of it? Pot kettle.

Silver see under my user name for a better location .

On 4/5/2017 at 15:30, VWD said:

Silver see under my user name for a better location .

Hah my mistake! 

 

That's my timing belt and etc's all changed today. Got a genuine VAG kit, water pump and aux drive belt. I almost wondered about tackling it myself having changed the water pump in the recent past on my Fabia Mpi but it is of course much more involved and I wouldn't like to have got it wrong. Plenty good guides on doing it DIY though. Mechanic said the belt was A1 but went on to say having the other parts changed are really the peace of mind you want.

 

I am quite fancying a plug in chip for this PD100 engine, nothing lairy, so the work really does make sense I guess.

I was surprised by Tech1e's description of what's involved and why a lock kit is needed . I had no problems with older cars with cambelts ( thinking back to Vauxhall 2000 with Vauxhall engine ,where the cambelt alignment tool was a bit of string across the marks), and even Cavaliers, where it was a very similar procedure. But this one- I think I'll leave it to an inde.

I've got a copy of the VAG belt & etc change interval, and it's interesting to see that for mine (if engine codes are same ) ,that after 01, the idler interval increases dramatically.( upwards)  ( found on line, though it's got the usual VAG dreaded warning about passing on ).

What put me off most trying to do the job myself on the ground is the lack of good access. Even once you've created the necessary access and space it'll be tight and a bit difficult to see easily. I could envisage loads of getting up and down off the ground to see/access the lower engine from the ground and the upper area from above. On a ramp with an engine support tool (ideally jackable I imagine) strikes me as much easier and maybe safer too. Even if from the point of view of not damaging anything if the engine slipped while you had it supported with the engine mount removed. Having not done the job I am only guessing but the water pump I did on my Mpi wasn't great fun, also involving supporting the engine and having tricky access.

Edited 11 April, 20179 yr by silver50

You should get a remap rather than a chip. Proper way to do it

 

+1 for a remap - I have had a couple of cars remapped for torque/mpg