Cambelt + Water Pump Replacement - Official guidance
- Thread starter Cham13
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- cam belt cambelt change
Well I’m in this situation now coming up four years with 13k on … I’ve done ten of those in 2022 …. Don’t think il be doing her
Not worth risking it. Especially the cost if it goes bang! The belts wear through time and mileage.
Time and wear must move in different dimensions in mainland Europe then.....
Not sure of your point and the relation to my comment.
Pretty simple really. Unless I'm wrong, belt replacement on the continent is at 5 years, UK dealers its 4. Therefore , your time and wear comment means they must affect uk vehicles quicker.....?
Maybe worth an extra year of wait then …. This is crap it should a world wide equal thing
I don't make the rules VW do and their respective countries(and yes it doesn't make sense). But regardless of all of this the belt will wear through use, whether time or mileage - We have removed some very low mileage belts, with serious deterioration and cracking, and also some very high mileage belts that look brand new. We recently had one (pic in our thread) where the idler pulley had nearly come completely loose.
Personally, taking these points into account, I would change it in line with the recommendation, as if the worst happens it's very expensive. At the end of the day its the individuals choice, we can only advise
I can understand mileage wear. And sure, rubber deteriorates with time but geography has little bearing in the UK/Europe equation surely.
I'd be interested to know Oli if you've removed many low age AND low mileage belts with serious damage. If so, then I would be worried and more likely to follow the advice from VW uk
What’s the interval and miles in German service manual
In the UK we spread millions of tonnes of salt on the roads in winter. Most of Europe is either too warm for regular ice, or far too cold for salt to work.
I had an Audi wheel bearing fail, as a chunk of rock salt had got behind the CV joint and on to the bearing where it badly corroded it until the salt got inside the inner race and rusted it.
This may be the reason why the UK has a shorter service schedule on cam belts and pulleys.
I had an Audi wheel bearing fail, as a chunk of rock salt had got behind the CV joint and on to the bearing where it badly corroded it until the salt got inside the inner race and rusted it.
This may be the reason why the UK has a shorter service schedule on cam belts and pulleys.
Having lived in Germany, I'd say the extremes of hot and cold are much greater than the UK. As for their rock salt usage, not a clue
As far as I am aware the manual states that the reduced interval is for ‘dusty’ country, however the UK doesn‘t appear on the VW Dusty Country list.
I agree. Why risk it over the sake of a year, especially as by the end of that year people still might not have reached the mileage threshold. I look at it as an investment- if you plan to sell the van at some point and have a buyer willing to pay top money for one with all the service intervals met on time you could miss out on a sale, or a high price, because you kicked the can down the road wondering about why the EU interval is different. Doesn’t seem worth it to me personally although I appreciate I might be odd
Timing belt maintenance history shouldn’t be of any concern for a buyer other than how long (time and milage) the current belt kit has been installed.
If we talk risk, it's hard to quantify.
There is risk it will go on the first day of ownership.....there is a risk it'll go after 4 years or 5 years. I'd love to know the actual failure rates given the number of VW T6's on the road.
Then we could all make a fully informed decision.
We've replaced hundreds if not thousands of Transporter cambelts (as well as all makes and models) over the years. There seems to be no consistency to the wear or deterioration (not damage) - Age or mileage. We pretty much only replace them on-time or late (with varying mileages), no one seems to want them replaced early, but with what we have see it is more than enough for us to back up the recommendation for customers to stick to the manufacturers guidelines in the UK. What must also be considered is the ever increasing front main oil seal leaks on T6s - Obviously oil will increase the deterioration of the belt as well.
The European guidelines has no relevance on us, so really needs to be ignored this case .
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