The original cambelt looked and sounded absolutely fine before I started.

Did you take it off and examine it very carefully for cracks and check for deterioration of the reinforcement. I bet you did.

And how does a cam belt sound for feks sake.

And what about the pulleys and tensioners and the water pump, all items that can fail and take the engine woith them.

OP, ignore the advice from this poster. He is known for his lack of maintenance which is OK for him since he will have to foot the bill when things go wrong. But for the rest of us changing items which have a very hard life (such as cam belts) is a small expense compared to the misery should they break.

Avant has warned him before about posting such nonsense but I guess he will never stop. All his posts should have a health warning at the bottom.

I am sitting in my son's flat in Irvine CA, having just driven his 2001 VW Passat estate across the USA from New Jersey (he has relocated). It is the same powertrain as my old Audi A6 (2.8 tiptronic) with 146,000m plus now my extra 3000m. The original cambelt looked and sounded absolutely fine before I started.

Change it needlessly early if you wish but be aware of the risk of a cack-handed job with a cheap belt inferior to the original which might give problems 30,000m later. This site used to be full of such stories.

The long change interval nowadays is precautionary as modern quality belts will last the life of the engine as long as the things they drive don't break. My mechanic cannot remember the last time he saw a belt failure on a post-2000 car.

So your mechanic is picky in his work and does not touch camblets...

Edited by madf on 31/05/2017 at 14:27

The long change interval nowadays is precautionary as modern quality belts will last the life of the engine as long as the things they drive don't break. My mechanic cannot remember the last time he saw a belt failure on a post-2000 car.

I've had two cam belt failures in the past

1) Ford Capri 2.0 - fortunately simple belt replacement restored service

2) Skoda Octavia 1.4 - As reported by HJ the cam belt tensioners failed at about 50k miles (original spec was 110k - later revised down to 40k by VAG) - fortunately belt somehow stayed on !! Fortunately I was still in warranty at the time

I always follow manufacture guidlines now!