Karoq cam belt change - start saving now !

[DSL]

As an owner of 2 older Jazzez (in addition to our Karoq), you can’t go far wrong with one of those.  👍

[Driveucrazy]

Strange coincidence. I have come to same conclusion. We have a had succession of jazz as second car, latest 2011. When we decide on one car household the Karoq and Jazz will go to be replaced by hybrid Jazz. Can’t compete for Karoq for comfort though.

[Rory]

My wife had a mk1 Jazz and then a mk2 - our son-in-law drives the 2009 mk2 now.  He's not into cars at all and it's just been MOT and the advisory list was...extensive!   Our daughter has a 2014 mk2 too.

 

So I keep an eye on a Jazz forum and it seems the usual Jazz drivers (old folks ) really don't like the newer Jazz's.  There were a couple who rejected hybrid Jazz's.

 

I think it's yet another of those "they don't make 'em like they used to" things.   Honda UK customer service is now useless (so same as eveyone else), coupled with the dealers.  Many of the excellent indie dealers have closed down, including the two near us who were both well regarded.  They got replaced by an insane (for a Honda dealer) glass palace and their customer service is diabolical - we take the cars to a servicing garage  that spun off from one of the dealers.   

 

There was talk of Honda pulling out of Europe - it's even more of a marginal brand in the rest of Europe than it is in the UK.   We used to get in little Jazz convoy's on the road into town - now they're getting to be quite a rare sight.

[Driveucrazy]

I am definitely one of the old folk! Never had problem with Honda dealership. Only visited for servicing. 
don’t get me going on Skoda dealership

[DSL]

Really got into Jazzez coz they are totally ideal dog-mobiles.  Sadly no more dogs but they are ideal runarounds for us, cost virtually nothing to run a reliable as the day is long. 👍

 

Re Hondas pulling out of the UK, wouldn’t be surprised with the pre-2030 “ramping up” penalties (don’t get me started!) any business would be off their trolly staying. 

[skomaz]

Two Jazz in our family - both owned by ladies in their 80's...   one a bright yellow top spec 1.2 EX auto (because 'why not?' - it replaced a breadvan Civic auto) - and the other a grey 1.2 SE manual (it replaced a Civic Tourer).  They are both fine and well screwed together but a little gutless and (IMHO) have quite complicated infotainment and controls.

 

Both owners love them though...

[Rory]

14 hours ago, skomaz said:

 but a little gutless

 

Getting very off topic here....the VTEC system doesn't do anything until around 3500RPM and really wants to be around 5500RPM.  They go well then - but you could probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of Jazzs that have ever been driven at those revs!

[skomaz]

51 minutes ago, Rory said:

 

Getting very off topic here....the VTEC system doesn't do anything until around 3500RPM and really wants to be around 5500RPM.  They go well then - but you could probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of Jazzs that have ever been driven at those revs!

 

He he - I've tried in both...

 

But yep a little off topic - apologies to those wanting to talk about cambelts on Karoqs - I'll not drift any further 😀

[kodiaqsportline]

35 minutes ago, skomaz said:

apologies to those wanting to talk about cambelts on Karoqs - I'll not drift any further 

 

might as well go off topic as there's nothing much to talk about cambelt changes on Karoqs now

[smipx]

12 minutes ago, kodiaqsportline said:

 

might as well go off topic as there's nothing much to talk about cambelt changes on Karoqs now

This is very true.  Maybe the moderators could sumarise the current position as a "Final" post on the thread and then lock the thread as any comments now can really only be "off topic" in reality (and deserve to have their own threads with their own titles so as not to confuse future browsers 🙂 

[StEdmund]

Just booked my 1.5tsi Karoq in for its 5 yr service with my local main Skoda dealer.............. and they confirmed ........... that the cam-belt change is now 15 yrs. Phew!

[sussamb]

Yet mine sent an email last week saying it was due! Just ignored it.

[StEdmund]

It's no wonder that confusion reigns - if you look up "Skoda Karoq cam-belt change" on Google - most references still say 5,000 miles. My dealer is Vindis in Bury St Edmunds, and I reckon they're pretty much on the ball.

[StEdmund]

"most references still say 5,000 miles"

 

Sorry - just realised, in the post above, I meant to say 5 years, not 5k miles

[Ootohere]

Most of anything that was published / put online by Skoda or Skoda Dealerships was before July 2023 in the UK and there appear to be no updates yet.

Maybe even still confusion among employees at Skoda Dealerships and now they and Skoda Customer Services just keep saying something they have heard and not seen for any engine of any age or type that has a cambelt.

[DBSurrey]

Cambelt at 5yrs or 50k miles has been removed from the maintenance schedule on the Skoda UK website.

[StEdmund]

Just out of interest, does anyone know if the new recommendation only applies to the 1.5tsi/Karoq, or if it applies to any other engines/models in the Skoda range - or, indeed, to any other VAG cars?

Edited 21 August, 2023 by StEdmund

[Rory]

15 hours ago, StEdmund said:

Just out of interest, does anyone know if the new recommendation only applies to the 1.5tsi/Karoq, or if it applies to any other engines/models in the Skoda range - or, indeed, to any other VAG cars?

 

Relating to daughter's SEAT Ateca, I got this by Twitter DM from SEAT UK (which is practice is VW Group's UK call centre staffed by some random 3rd party company):

 

"We can confirm as of 1 July 2023, the cambelt intervals have been updated to remove the five-year intervals on all cars across the Volkswagen Group. The cambelt replacement will now be based on the mileage."

[gm73]

An update to this thread. 
 

My 2020 1.5 TSI ACT is on 90k. It’s a taxi.  Škoda are saying 140k now, as they told me at the dealer, as a change interval. I’m going to get it done at 100k as a precautionary measure. OR trade the car in October for a Toyota Corolla. 
 

Henry’s Škoda can do the job for the princely sum of £995. However a local independent with the VAS 611007 tool is £650. 
 

I’ve had 6 Octavias as taxis, one 1.9 PD did 400k. And I had a timing belt snap on a 1.9 PD at 330k. Great cars in the main. 
 

This one will be the last however. 

[kodiaqsportline]

1 hour ago, gm73 said:

I’ve had 6 Octavias as taxis, one 1.9 PD did 400k. And I had a timing belt snap on a 1.9 PD at 330k. Great cars in the main. 

 

This one will be the last however. 

 

That's interesting. Did you have timing belts changed all all 6 Octavias at the recommended intervals? I'm assuming with the earlier PD cars it was every 4yr or ( 60/80k ) rather than the 5yr the changed it to on newer engines.

[xman]

7 minutes ago, kodiaqsportline said:

 

That's interesting. Did you have timing belts changed all all 6 Octavias at the recommended intervals? I'm assuming with the earlier PD cars it was every 4yr or ( 60/80k ) rather than the 5yr the changed it to on newer engines.

It was 4yr/40k miles for 1.9pd engines.

Reason being the crap design, undersized belt and excessive high peak forces imposed by the unit injectors leading to many early failures. Previous TDi being 6yr/60k miles.

 

VAG UK then adopted the unique non standard not factory recommended early intervals, presumably to avoid warranty claims and give dealers extra  guaranteed work.

[gm73]

On 25/08/2023 at 19:00, kodiaqsportline said:

 

That's interesting. Did you have timing belts changed all all 6 Octavias at the recommended intervals? I'm assuming with the earlier PD cars it was every 4yr or ( 60/80k ) rather than the 5yr the changed it to on newer engines.

All belts were changed at the intervals except the one that snapped. The timing cover was covered with tippex numbers! The one that snapped was retiring as a taxi in a few months time and I'd stopped caring as I had a new car lined up. Someone did try and repair it but it was never the same again and I think it ended up scrapped.

[Driveucrazy]

Whilst I will now follow the new recommendation I have a 1.5 TSI and the water pump is not driven off the cambelt unlike the dumb idea of some other models.

if your car is the latter I would advise that the water pump is regularly inspected. My Vauxhall had a cambelt failure 2 months after it had been replaced. The cause was the water pump failed which then snapped the cambelt.

that is why when the previous guidance was to change the water pump whenever the cambelt was replaced. 
I don’t know what Skoda are now advising about water pumps driven off cambelt.

if I had a had a Skoda with cambelt driven water pump serviced,  I would make a point of asking what the condition of the water pump was on inspection.

[smipx]

In this scenario you are always advised to change not only the water pump but also all the replacable pulleys/tensioner bits. If I recall corectly, there is a specific kit for the purpose and the quote to replace the belt (from a VAG or from a proper VAG indie) will should always include this.  That is my recollection from my 2009 2.0Tdi Tiguan that was exactly as you describe. I had it for 10 years and had it all done twice or maybe even 3 times. A damn expensive cost that you don't really consider when you are in teh showroom looking at all the shiny new cars - and why would you 🙂

 

All the moving (and wearable) parts were replaced as any one of them failing is a new engine / engine rebuild scenario or for a car over 8 years old most likely scrappage or a "project" for a person of that persuasion.

 

Dont get me started on the other achiles heel (suspension bushes, struts, rods and shocks etc.).  That was another major uplift in "unexpected costs" on the Tiguan from years 4 to 10 while trying to cure creaking/squeeking/crashing over inperfections in the road/road humps (or at least keep it in an acceptable range of annoyance) - Many hundreds of pounds more!  Tehn there was the propshaft leak/replacement (4x4) and also the haldex and diff oil chages and Auto oil changes.  Overall it was a very expensive car to maintain well. At least the propshaft was covered under a 3rd party warranty when I persuaded the indie to take some photos of the oil drips under the rear diff seal (on the floor) which constituted a failure rather than a "misting".  That, if memory serves me, was about £1200 worth for a new propshaft.  If they had rejected claim then I would have had a seal change done by the indie of course.

 

Cheers,

Paul

 

Edited 19 September, 2023 by smipx

[tommy142]

My karoq is 5 years old this year  so decided to find out when I need the Cam belt changing, I phoned DH keiths in leeds and was told skoda have amended the belt to no longer needing changing, ever. Great news as mine is the expensive one. 

Could this really last life of the car?