Rocking rollers

I dropped you the info about my VW cam-belt change on Friday FYI in respect of correspondence in various quarters about the sudden change to 4yrs/60,000 due to service failure of the plastic jockey wheel, just to discover after the event that mine was both all-metal and everything in that region looked like new. So I take it that it was a wasted exercise on my part?

Asked on 1 October 2011 by JH, via email

Answered by Honest John

If all the pulleys are solid metal, then yes. What happened in the past was that when the bearings in these jockey wheels started to give out, they shrieked and gave you plenty of warning. But when the bearing is in the centre of a plastic pulley, the plastic melts as soon as the bearing starts to heat up and that's why belts were being flung off prematurely with no warning.

Tags: belts and chains

Similar questions

Fiat Panda - is it cam belt or timing chain?

I`ve just bought (privately) a Fiat panda 1.3 diesel registered Jan 2005. I hear a lot of talk about timing and cam belts breaking and costing a fortune to repair. What exactly are they and does my Panda...

Does my 2007 Mitsubishi Outlander have a timing belt or chain?

Is my 2007 Mitsubishi Outlander with a 2.0-litre Di-D engine chain or belt driven? I have no service history so how can I check it’s been done if a it has a belt? Mileage is at 112,000 miles.