I noticed in Saturdays Telegraph in Honest Johns section that some poor individuals cam belt failed 10,000 miles after VW fitted it. The result?
Damaged cylinder head, pistons and valves.
Similarly, I had a cam belt failure on my 97 Passat (1 month ago) only 3000 miles after VW fitted it. The result?
Damaged cylinder head, pistons and valves.
It may be co-incidence, but has anyone else had any problems with cam belt fitting , or know of anyone who has?
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Doesn't this simply underline the VW "If only everything in life was as reliable as a Volkswagen" myth ?? In my experience ( my wife's Golf, 2 cars ago ) the car was poorly built and generally of poor quality. After various niggles, the clutch exploded (out of warranty, of course) after about 30000 miles causing £750 worth of damage to my wallet (at an independent, not VW dealer) and VW didn't want to know. You'll not be surprised to hear I haven't, nor will I , buy anything VW ever again.
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What has happened to VW? My Golf VR6 hasn't missed a beat since I bought it new in December 1996. Is it that the bean counters have been spoiling things, or that multinational manufacturing has lowered standards of construction, or that there are so many VWs about and such high expectations of them that the duff ones get publicized quickly?
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...it is why my wife and I will not buy another Audi or VW with a belt-cam engine: got fed up with the £400 bills, and they 'did they do it properly?' thoughts. Plus, the cars (VW Golf and Passat) never felt the same afterwards: buzzing/vibrating steering, louder idle noise, etc, etc.
Same reason we did not buy a VW Touran (DSG gearbox)or Audi Multitronic: the dealer refused to state how long the clutch would last in each and stated that a clutch replacement would cost 'at least £450+vat' since it required an entire engine removal.
So we went for a C-Class with the 'old' 5 speed Auto tansmission and chain-cam.
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If it ain't broke, don't fix it. The problem is obviously either cack-handed workmanship or duff non -kosher spare parts, not VW/Audi.
My VW Passat GL estate has done 225,000 on the original belt which still looks perfectly OK [I changed a whining tensioner pulley at 160,000ish]. I sold my Audi 100 5cyl at 145,000 - original belt, looked OK. My last Passat GL5 belt changed at 135,000 only because the water pump failed and it was convenient to do at the same time - looked as good as the new one.
Current car Audi A6 2.8 81,000 [belt needs changing, squire]. I have no intention of changing it - it looks strong enough to drive a motorbike, let alone two poxy little cam shafts.
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Er, you changed a timing belt tensioner and didn't bother changing the belt??!!??
Well I guess you've saved enough from not changing belts over the years to afford a new engine WHEN (note, not IF) the one in the A6 lets go.
I changed the original belt on my Xantia TD earlier in the year. It was 84,000 miles and 8.5 years old. The back of the belt had lots of cracks about 1" to 2" long right down to the cords. I doubt it would have lasted another 10,000 miles.
RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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Changing the pulley is one bolt. Changing the belt is a big job; just to get the bottom cambelt cover off means removing a large self-tensioning belt driving aircon, alternator. There's another smaller one for the alternator and I think the odd pulley has to come off too.
There are no cracks or splits. The one on the A6 looks fine - do u know something I don't about these lazy 2.8 engines? It doesn't spin anything like as energetically as the revvy 1.8Ts yet the 'experts' say 80,000 for both!
As a treat it got a squirt of belt dressing.
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