I had the cambelt changed on my Passat at 59k miles last August by an independent specialist. This I am told this included replacement tensioners and water pump. Last week, at 63k miles, the stud fastening the tensioner to the engine block failed causing nearly £2,500 worth of damage to the engine, warranting a replacement cylinder head. According to the specialist who fitted the cambelt (and is carrying out the repair) the kit supplied to replace the cambelt does not include a replacement stud. He also said that the stud on the Passat is 10mm in diameter reducing to 8mm which apparently used to be used on the Golf but has now replaced by a continuous 10mm stud. Why has VW not done the same for the Passat? Is this just bad luck or was the original job suspect.
Do I have an recourse against either VW who supplied the cambelt kit or the garage that carried out the work. Or is this just bad luck?
Any thoughts would be welcome.
Cheers
Streets
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You need to find out if the kit really did contain the stud, and also, if the factory manual says to change the stud. It probably does.
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This issue is not unknown with several makes... sadly most often caused by a lack of attention to the correct torque figure for the tensioner fixing nut.
There is a natural tendancy to want to make sure the tensioner is on tight to avoid it moving. Add this to the fact that access for a torque wrench is very tight.... and the correct figure is so low it is below many peoples standard torque wrenches anyway... well you can see what ends up happening.
I accept what he says about the stud dia mod but it may well not be the actual main cause.
This is both an owners and independents nightmare.
M.M
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Regarding the stud dia what I seem to remember is that it is 10mm into the head and shouldered where the tensioner and nut fit down to 8mm. But I see very few of these engines so this is not gospel... I'm sure it has a shouldered look anyway.
As a matter of interest I would say the tensioner fixing nut torque is around 12-15lbft..... amazingly one online guide to doing this job then goes onto ignore the book torque figure and says the best one is *good and tight*. Very reckless when the stud is into alloy (which I'm sure it is) and many folks can easily take a nut to triple the correct figure with a ring spanner alone..
M.M
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VW spec is 20 Nm, then 45 degrees further tightening, which ends up being pretty tight.
The nut is self locking. I always fit a new nut with each new tensioner.
On my Golf 115PS engine the stud is 8mm dia. for the whole length of the tensioner.
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You could be caughty between a rock (VW dealer saying parts wrongly fitted) and a hardplace (Indy saying the VW supplied part failed).
Perhaps an argument for main dealers carrying out such repairs, notwithstanding the fact that the have all of the right tools, TSBs etc from the manufacturer and do many more of these jobs than the average indy, a VW deaker fitting VW parts to a VW car only 5 months ago would surely mean a warranted repair if one of these parts should fail.
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Thanks Cheddar - you are right I am caught between a rock and a hard place. I can't see in million years I have any recourse against the Indy.
Appreciate your time.
Streets
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I think the only chance you have is to get one party or other on your side, i.e if the kit should have had a stud and the indy says clearly that it didn't tackle VW jointly, Otherwise get the VW dealer to look at the failed stud and report on the cause possibly giving you a stick to beat the indy with, i.e. if over torqued etc.
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The tensioners were modified around that time from a hydrolic type to a normal sprung loaded roller, but if you have the old type you stick with it. The studs dont come in the kit because you dont normaly need to replace them. The nut is resonabally tight which is always replaced (20 to 25nm + quarter turn off the top of my head.) hope this helps? Good luck!
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