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I have had the car since new and vw recommend i change the cambelt after 4 years or 80,000mls---the car is now 4 years old but has only 48000mls on the clock---should i change the belt?
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4 years or 80,000mls
The word "or" means whichever of those two criteria comes sooner.
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There's some debate about this. In the US, the cambelt interval on the PD130 engine is 100K miles, and there are a couple of recent threads on the Discussion forum that detail this.
Some are of the opinion (me included) that the 4-year cambelt interval on the PD diesel engines is a revenue-generator for dealers.
On my own PD130 Passat, I had it done at 62,000 and just under 5 years.
Just my 10p worth, but I would recommend having it done by a VW dealer as they should have the proper service tool for locking the camshaft pulley (thus preserving the injector timing, which is important for good running).
Also, when I rang round for quotes, I found the VW dealer was actually cheaper than the independents, as a bit of front-end disassembly is required to get at the cambelt.
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Didn't VW bring the mileage down to 40,000 on some cars for this cambelt change? In answer to the original question - yes change it. Why gamble on very expensive repairs.
Also don't they recommend the water pump is changed at the same time?
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rtj, that's on the petrol engines in Golfs and the like, not on the PD diesels.
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Apologies for my mistake - I thought it was the PD engines too.
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Craig,
Independent garages can obtain the locking tools. You would be amazed at how many of them do not only own them , but use them too.
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so what is the definitive period for PD diesels??
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In the UK, dealers and VW UK say 60K miles or 4 years, whichever comes first.
In the US, dealers and VW US say 100K miles, time interval unknown.
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I have never understood why one country is different to another when it comes to changing parts. I presume that the belts/pumps are the same, as I do not think they would design different parts for different countries. Maybe someone can enlighten me. Or is it just the case that VW is fleecing their UK customer?s and the fact that VOSA is toothless/spineless when it comes to backing consumers in the UK. I believe in America there equivalent is a lot tougher.
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In the case of the UK and States, I wonder if it's simply a matter of usage patterns? In the States, cars tend to cover higher mileages in a shorter period of time, do more longer journeys, and tend to be driven more gently than their UK equivalents. All of these would be beneficial for cambelt life.
I understand the camshaft driven unit injectors put a lot of stress on the PD engine's cambelt, and I also understand that the 40k interval was brought in due to failures on certain UK engines before the 60k scheduled change. Ford did something similar on their old 1.8D engine until they redesigned the cambelt and tensioner assembly to alleviate the problem.
Sometimes things get missed during the durability testing.
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