My Mk2 Fabia has done 98,000 miles. It's running well and is in good condition, but I'm thinking the cambelt needs replacing. It was changed just over 5 years ago at around 58,000 miles. My question is does it require fairly urgent replacement now, and does the water pump need to be replaced at the same time?

1 hour ago, Salopshire said:

My Mk2 Fabia has done 98,000 miles. It's running well and is in good condition, but I'm thinking the cambelt needs replacing. It was changed just over 5 years ago at around 58,000 miles. My question is does it require fairly urgent replacement now, and does the water pump need to be replaced at the same time?

According to SUK latest recommendations, cambelt life is ~130_000 miles, but experience says that a plastic water pump impellor has a life of about 90_000. It may well be driven off the cambelt.

Those are the facts AIUI; your call.

If you had a genuine belt kit and water pump fitted at 50,000 miles then you would be still good for another 50,000 on top of your 98,000 miles but as with most garages they don't fit the whole genuine kit or fit the genuine water pump and in some cases they don't even put the correct coolant back in causing you problems later on, suggest you try and find original bill when belt was changed and check what was actually changed, other than that bite the bullet and get a genuine vw/skoda belt kit, adjuster roller and bolts and get a genuine water pump and correct vw coolant, have a shop around got my kit much cheaper by trying different dealers (new old stock) and then if you want take it to a garage and ask just for labour costs or like I did changed it myself, i also changed the serpent belt and tensioner at the same time as the car had done just over 100,000 the belt looked like it could have done another 50,000 but the water pump impeller was really worn and don't think it would have lasted much longer as it'ds made of plastic

Thanks to you both for the replies. From what you tell me I think I'll get it done fairly soon. The previous belt was fitted by Skoda main dealer, so I presume genuine parts were used. I now get my repairs done by an independent mechanic working alone - whom I trust completely - so I'll get him to do it, including the water pump. Thanks again.

The main dealer would have done the job properly using all genuine parts and the bill would've been ferociously high.

I'm not saying don't do it, but changing it absolutely isn't necessary yet.

11 minutes ago, sepulchrave said:

The main dealer would have done the job properly using all genuine parts and the bill would've been ferociously high.

I'm not saying don't do it, but changing it absolutely isn't necessary yet.

That's interesting to know because I'm not in a tremendous hurry to do it if it's not absolutely necessary- I just thought it was overdue. I may well change the car soon if I see something suitable, so keeping costs down is very much preferable. I see that a Gates cambelt kit and water pump costs around £135, so any idea what is the usual time it takes to fit these?

2 hours ago, Salopshire said:

That's interesting to know because I'm not in a tremendous hurry to do it if it's not absolutely necessary- I just thought it was overdue. I may well change the car soon if I see something suitable, so keeping costs down is very much preferable. I see that a Gates cambelt kit and water pump costs around £135, so any idea what is the usual time it takes to fit these?

ISTR It took about 4 hours for a pro mechanic to do it on a turbodiesel, including stripping and replacing the cold side HP air pipes.

2 hours ago, Paws4Thot said:

ISTR It took about 4 hours for a pro mechanic to do it on a turbodiesel, including stripping and replacing the cold side HP air pipes.

That doesn't sound too bad, I might go for it anyway in that case. Many thanks.