jpiddin1

iTrader: (1)

Hi folks, hope you can advise me.

My car has now done 50k miles and is 5 years old. The service schedule says change the belts at 4 years or 60k, but a main dealer in Germany told me dont bother about the age figure, just concentrate on the mileage.

So I plan to wait until 60k is up. The car has done about 250 laps of the Ring, which may skew it a little, but I have driven on average at very low revs the last few years.

Anyone had any failures of belts before the specified mileage due to age?

I'm in Sweden right now and loathed to get the work done here cos it would be twice what the German dealer wants at a bout £1,000!

Cheers, James.

Petrol-Head

I change mine every 3 years or 45k which ever comes up first.
Belts range in price from £47 to £139.95 (for the same belt !)

I do mine myself and do the other 2 belts at the same time, they do suggest changing the crankshalf oil seal as well it's a 2 min job and easier when you have the belts off. It may not ben leaking when you change it but it might do in another 10k miles time. and it's only a £1.90 part !

jpiddin1

iTrader: (1)

Cheers Mate for the quick reply.

On Gti's that I used to have I did them pretty often so they were £12 from VAG and took me 45 minutes.

I dont have the tools where I am here to tackle anthing big and my 2000MY Turbo looks a bit more involved!!!

How long did the job take you? Any specialist tools needed? Any need to re-tension after a few 100 miles?

Anyone got anecdotes about them failing? So so at what age/mileage?

Cheers again.

J.

Petrol-Head

No specials tools really just need a thin allen key for the cam belt tensioner. Compress it in a vice (carefully) and put the allen key through the hole, insert the tensioner back onto the engine then pull out the allen key....then it'll tension it. Took me about 2.5 hours on a 2.0 sport so i'd say about 3 hours on a Turbo...with a mate for moral support ! including tea breaks and biscuits !!

BrynO

If the book says 4 years and you're now at 5 I'd just get it done mate, I did mine at 4 years even though it was only on 20k, I'm sure the chances of it going are slim but better to be safe than sorry IMO, esp if you are running it on the N'ring!

struv

im doing mine next week my99 and i was wondering if i should change any tensioners or idlers while at it. iv never done one on a scoob before but 500 miles after i changed the one on my girlfreinds porsche 944 the tensioner spat all its bearings out and i ended up having to put 8 valves in and was told that the tensioner and idelers should be renewed at the same time as the belt .AND I DONT WANT TO MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE AGAIN!!!

struv

anyone??

Petrol-Head

They do suggest a new tensioner which you can get from camskil for about £90 it's up to you but i didn't replace it.