I've just spoken to two Skoda dealership's whom now have said Skoda had revised their cambelt change intervals from 5 yearly to 10 years or 140k, as from July 2023.

I've also rung two Skoda dealership for cambelt change prices, Skoda Darlington initially stated £1,100, then came down to £850 all in. I then rung Derek Slacks Skoda dealership at Middlesbrough, they stated £589 all in for this engine. 

So if you want it changing its worth shopping around, even with Skoda dealership's.

I'm also trying to find out if the Skoda 'all in', extended warranty, service plan would cover a snapped belt if it occured to the original belt under 10 years of age. When I have I'll update. As I'm considering buying this plan and want to know if the original timing belt over fives years old would still be covered. 

Edited 8 July, 20232 yr by Phoenixboy

Interesting.

Skoda (not Skoda UK) have always stated the EA211 engine belt is for life.

May still have to replace it more frequently than 10 years if you were to take an extended U.K Skoda warranty, though. This is what I'm also trying to clarify. 

The dealers won't like it...not when they're charging £1000 a pop!

I dunno. I reckon this is probably a gain for them.

 

Instead of needing skilled techs spending many hours tied up doing complex cambelts they'll have more space and time for less skilled ones to be fitting questionably necessary brake discs and pads. Much better margins.

True..true!

5 hours ago, robs12 said:

The dealers won't like it...not when they're charging £1000 a pop!

It's mixed messaging at the moment, dealerships I spoke to said they'd recommend 5 yearly change intervals, Skoda now say 10. Skoda extended warranty may also want it changing earlier to keep warranty valid, once I have verification of this I'll post it. 

Cheapest dealer cambelt change I found was £589, other £850, down from £1100. 

I certainly wasn't prepared to pay £1100. Although I have 6 months before mine reaches 5. 

Edited 8 July, 20232 yr by Phoenixboy

Hey @Phoenixboy. Curious if you did get verification about the cambelt change interval? Thanks! 

My 1.5 TSi is on 101k. I booked with Henry’s Skoda to get it done early as it’s a taxi at a cost of £995. Then I cancelled as I just can’t afford that just now. It will need to wait until at least 120k now but I’ve found a garage that has the special tool that do it for £650. 

23 hours ago, WalterM1 said:

Hey @Phoenixboy. Curious if you did get verification about the cambelt change interval? Thanks! 

It's 10 years or above as far as I can gather. It's just a guidance though. I'm now onto my second 1.5tsi, I now own the estate version. It's covered 62k on an 19 plate. I won't be replacing mine until I'm out of extended Skoda warranty, I could keep that going for another 3 years, so if the belt were to snap it would cover that. If I still own my car in 3 years time, I'd have it changed. Although I was advised that the belt was now for the lifetime of that engine by the Skoda used car sales staff😂

Edited 20 January, 20242 yr by Phoenixboy

3 hours ago, Phoenixboy said:

It's 10 years or above as far as I can gather. It's just a guidance though. I'm now onto my second 1.5tsi, I now own the estate version. It's covered 62k on an 19 plate. I won't be replacing mine until I'm out of extended Skoda warranty, I could keep that going for another 3 years, so if the belt were to snap it would cover that. If I still own my car in 3 years time, I'd have it changed. Although I was advised that the belt was now for the lifetime of that engine by the Skoda used car sales staff😂

Thanks! Love the lifetime interval 🤣.

On the tsi it always was lifetime with visual inspections after about 210,000km (130000 miles) but Skoda uk put a 5 year time interval on so there was still some maintenance money to be had from the cars in aftersales.

As the tsi engine has developed, changing the belt has become more and more of a technical job and even more complicated and expensive special tools have been needed. I wouldn’t mind betting a good few engines have been made worse by incorrect timing belt installation, and the hybrid cars need ev qualified technicians which are in short supply or even non existent at many dealers. No doubt the engineers at VAG said why are you messing with these belts which have been designed to last and the drive system for them designed to reduce belt stress ?

Personally I wouldn’t worry about a timing belt on a ea211 tsi engine before it was 10 years old unless it had starship mileage.

Within our family I have also  maintained a Vauxhall (10 year/100,000mile interval) belt changed at 10 years on 110,000 miles and a Ford (8 year/80,000 mile interval) belt changed at 9 years on 60,000 mile. Both those manufacturers engines have water pumps driven off the timing belt which is a weak point. The ea211 tsi’s have the water pump driven by a separate belt at the other end of the engine so the main timing belt is unaffected by pump failure.

 

12 hours ago, classic said:

On the tsi it always was lifetime with visual inspections after about 210,000km (130000 miles) but Skoda uk put a 5 year time interval on so there was still some maintenance money to be had from the cars in aftersales.

As the tsi engine has developed, changing the belt has become more and more of a technical job and even more complicated and expensive special tools have been needed. I wouldn’t mind betting a good few engines have been made worse by incorrect timing belt installation, and the hybrid cars need ev qualified technicians which are in short supply or even non existent at many dealers. No doubt the engineers at VAG said why are you messing with these belts which have been designed to last and the drive system for them designed to reduce belt stress ?

Personally I wouldn’t worry about a timing belt on a ea211 tsi engine before it was 10 years old unless it had starship mileage.

Within our family I have also  maintained a Vauxhall (10 year/100,000mile interval) belt changed at 10 years on 110,000 miles and a Ford (8 year/80,000 mile interval) belt changed at 9 years on 60,000 mile. Both those manufacturers engines have water pumps driven off the timing belt which is a weak point. The ea211 tsi’s have the water pump driven by a separate belt at the other end of the engine so the main timing belt is unaffected by pump failure.

 

I've always seen the change intervals as a guidance, anyway. As if they were to snap early out of warranty then that would be up to the individual to foot the bill. I'm pleased I don't have one of the more modern wet belts to pay for & they seem more problematic with certain manufacturers. I've owned mainly vauxhalls since the 80's on, decided to switch to Skoda a few years ago, hoping for better reliability than the recent Stellantis rubbish. 

Have you had many reports of snapped belt with the 1.5tsi on here? Although as you've pointed out with the water pump, I'd expect those could fail first. 

I like my 1.5tsi engine & especially now it's fitted to a wagon, just took me a while to get there.

Thanks for the info.  

Edited 21 January, 20242 yr by Phoenixboy

I haven’t seen any reports of a failed timing belt on any of the 1.0, 1.2, 1.4 or 1.5 tsi engines. I certainly haven’t read about any on here but if someone can quote one then fair enough.

 

3 hours ago, classic said:

I haven’t seen any reports of a failed timing belt on any of the 1.0, 1.2, 1.4 or 1.5 tsi engines. I certainly haven’t read about any on here but if someone can quote one then fair enough.

 

Good to know. 

Cambelt 

Not sure where the 10 years has come from.

 

Whilst in typical Skoda UK fashion there is plenty of confusion out there, the 5 year blanket interval has increased to 15 years, no mileage limit.

Chinese whispers. 

 

 

Cam Belt Guidance change (1).pdf

Edited 6 April, 20242 yr by Rooted

Wish I’d had those screen grabs a few months ago, they’d have supported my case against Skoda UK via the Motor Ombudsman when my Skoda retailer changed my cambelt at 5 years old in July 2023, only a few weeks after that bulletin was released telling them to cancel bookings!

@silver1011 IMO better done than not.

Even if i had one from new i know how i floor the accelerator, do double kickdowns etc. 

Time will tell when there are more 8 year old ACT / CODs, with the parts fitted at the factory if VW Group cared about owners / buyers or was it all these 5 year old and older FMDSH cars in trade and that the Dealers might need to be spending 6 hours or so on.

Or less labour hours when they were footing the bill and not customers before the car was back into a dealer as a Skoda, VW, Audi , Seat approved used car. 

On 20/01/2024 at 18:54, gm73 said:

My 1.5 TSi is on 101k. I booked with Henry’s Skoda to get it done early as it’s a taxi at a cost of £995. Then I cancelled as I just can’t afford that just now. It will need to wait until at least 120k now but I’ve found a garage that has the special tool that do it for £650. 

I also drive a 1.5 tsi and use it as a taxi,

my question is how much does the lifespan of a cambelt decrease with the considerable extra amount of stop/starts the belt is used for daily as a taxi ? 

That would be almost impossible to quantify IMO, but I'd think that the interval difference would be minimal compared to the belt running all the time.

I can't see the inertial strain of the cam drive on start-up being significant. 

38 minutes ago, Warrior193 said:

That would be almost impossible to quantify IMO, but I'd think that the interval difference would be minimal compared to the belt running all the time.

I can't see the inertial strain of the cam drive on start-up being significant. 

I’m just a bit twitchy as my previous car also used as a taxi ,Octavia 1.6 tdi , the belt snapped at 93k

6 minutes ago, Brian15 said:

I’m just a bit twitchy as my previous car also used as a taxi ,Octavia 1.6 tdi , the belt snapped at 93k

How old was the TDI at 93K. Was there much damage to the top end?

Just now, Warrior193 said:

How old was the TDI at 93K. Was there much damage to the top end?

68 plate , ended up getting £1k scrap for it as was quoted £3.5k to repair it