Evening all,

Now I fully understand that the cam belt should be inspected and replaced at 60k. Due to some unforseen bills money is a bit on the short side so im going to have to put it off till October I expect the car will have another 3 or 4 k on the clock by this time! I was wondering how risky this is?

The car has done just for 60k and is 2 and half years old with mainly motorway miles and has only really been driven by me and the GF back from the pub:D

Thanks

Andy

well if it broke and you are over the recommended change mileage it wont be covered under warranty , plus the expense to strip the engine down would be quite high i'd imagine

you might be lucky and you don't have any problems , but why take the risk IMO

The interval is 60K or 4 years and I have seen some PD belts with huge cracks across them at 40K. At least get it inspected but you will find it difficult to get anyone to commit themselves for fear of repercussions should it fail. Basically you are on your own. Should your gamble fail (how I often end up buying cars, such as my current Oct VRS) a new engine is £2546.75 plus fitting (so add another grand at least) or if the damage isn't so severe, a head is £1572.53 plus fitting (so with belts, head set, bolts, water pump, labour etc about another grand again), your choice.

Theres a chance it may go but then again there is a chance it can go at 40k. As its quite a young age I wouldn't worry about it going an extra 3-4k.

Hi

Mine was replaced at 62k and I was lucky :( with me it was I did not get chance to book it in , but managed to get it in and they shown me the belt , :eek: wow I was lucky

Sarah

Mine was changed at 57k and the belt looked fine according to the mechanic but he said you can never really tell when they go..................they just go and take a massive chunk of your money with them.

If money is tight then look on ebay for the kit then you only have to pay for labour, i got my VAG kit for less then £30 inc postage and its all geniune.

I wouldn't risk it, my belt although probably still good for the 60,000 miles was showing definite signs of wear at 53,000 miles see:

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/fabia/cambelt-condition-53-000-a/83358/?

I just wouldn't risk it, the consequences of a belt breaking will be seriously more expensive than the cost of replacing the belt now. :eek:

My '05 vRS had a cambelt schedule that said change it at 80k...... I ran it on the original cambelt to 79k with no problems, and my learner do stupid things like stand on the throttle in neutral an let the engine bounce off the rev limiter.....

so I know they will last 80k... (my fiats cambelt is a 90k change) but as others have said, do you want a bill for several thousand pounds if it breaks?

It's such an easy thing to do, that it far out weighs the cost of doing nothing, and then having a broken engine.

If in doubt do it anyway.

Soviet

its not french it should go on a little longer

so I know they will last 80k... (my fiats cambelt is a 90k change) but as others have said, do you want a bill for several thousand pounds if it breaks?

And i've seen them break at 40k.

The 80k interval is a good point, Skoda occasional list cam belt intervals 20k longer than VW/Audi on exactly the same engine code.

Thanks for the replies all

Please don’t think im trying to justify not getting it done, it will get done at the very earliest point (hopefully this Friday)

I have spoken to my local dealer and whilst he said they have seen cars with 80k on with no signs of ware they have also had them go at 40

He also mentioned that Skoda fight not to repair a broken cam belt even when the car is under warranty!

Anyway thanks again

Andy

The very latest belts are a yellowish colour inside, I believe they are now Kevlar based, and they are alot easier to get on.

Random fact of the day.

I believe they are now Kevlar based,

Random fact of the day.

A reassuring good random fact - hopefully for years down the line...

This was missed by my dealer at 60k and only at 70k did they remind me! To be fair I didn't read the detail in the service schedule so I missed it as well. Anyway, cam belt changed at 70k with no problems. Unfortunately I didn't see the old one after it was removed.

Obviously I wouldn't recommend this.

I had to wait a couple of days between the 70k service and being booked in for the cam belt changem, during which time I was driving very gingerly (as if that would make any difference!)

All done on Friday only 960 miles over the recomended milage. £228 inc VAT, not too sure if that a good price or not?

They doid say that there was no visual defects on the belt but best to be safe as has been said above..

Thanks

Andy

So the water pump wasn't changed then?

So the water pump wasn't changed then?

Erm no, should it have been? Should I just know it needs changing and request it or is this someting a dealer would be more then aware of?

Should I now be concerned it wasnt changed?

When I asked my dealer about it being replaced they said they never do unless requested. I got mine done at an independent and changed the water pump although has anyones actually gone wrong?

............................... although has anyones actually gone wrong?

Loads of pumps have had their plastic impellers disintegrate although mainly on the petrol V.A.G. engines. The Mk4 Golf forum for instance has lots of horror stories about this if you do a search there.

To be fair, unless the O.P.'s dealer was specifically asked to change the pump it's not something that would normally be carried out at the 60,000 mile service. Many on here will however ask for the pump to be done at the same time as the cambelt as it's driven by the cambelt & if it seized or broke up it could snap the belt and destroy the engine.

The cambelt has to be removed anyway to change the pump and the pump is only about £30 (metal impellered ones are available) and that's why many people make sure the pump's done at the same time because the work involved in doing just the pump alone at any other time makes it quite an expensive precaution.

Personally, although my water pump looked fine when I changed it, for the sake of £30 & the thought of running it to 120,000 miles at the time of next belt change without it failing was a risk I wasn't prepared to take.

The in block water pump is prone to failure, it is a common problem and most dealers now insist on changing it. I have lost a number of cam belt jobs over the years due to my insistence on changing the pump (I also only use genuine pumps due to the two year guarantee including parts & labour) and have had a number of these jobs I lost come back to me for a water pump later where the whole job has to be done all over gain or in some instances, an engine rebuild. One lady whose car we serviced when we recommended a belt/pump change had her belt done elsewhere as someone quoted her about £60 cheaper. About a month later the pumps bearings collapsed and but she heard the noise and realised something was wrong due to water loss and called the AA who asked her to not drive the car any more and they brought it into us. The pump had totally collapsed to such an extent the drive pulley split in two with a chunk dropping down into the lower pulley but it stayed in time and didn’t hit. Not all are so lucky. We are beginning to think that new belts and tensioner’s actually accelerate pump bearing failure. Also, the plastic impellers on the pumps have a nasty habit of falling to bits. Personally, when a genuine VW replacement pump is £37.21 including VAT retail, I think it is too big a risk not to change it although you have to figure into that £13.10 for some G12 coolant. I also think £228 was too cheap and would guess they didn’t replace the engine mount bolts either.

I also think £228 was too cheap and would guess they didn’t replace the engine mount bolts either.

There book price is about £280 but they done it for £228.

Mine is nearly 30k miles into its second belt so doesn't realy need changing yet. However we recently had the works VW LT35 TDi belt fail at 60k destroying the engine - the service schedule was 80k. This prompted me to get a couple of quotes for the Fabia. A local independant VAG specialist (ex VW) quoted £330 and the back street garage where my brother works quoted £320! Is someone pulling my plonker?