O/T: Cars and cambelts

Any views on this from the combined wisdom of the BBS?

I've a VW Polo which will be 5 years old next month. I normally have it dealer serviced and MOT'd. They suggest to me that in view of it's age, the cambelt will be ready for replacing. Thing is, I've had the car from new and only just hit 13,500 miles! I would have thought 40-50,000 miles would have been nearer the mark. I know they can deteriorate with age as well as miles, and that a failure can be pretty catastrophic. But I'm thinking I'd want to have done two or three times my current mileage before getting it swapped.

Any views folks?

 

It’s usually at a set mileage or amount of years which ever comes first always better to safe than sorry with cam belts if it snaps you will be looking at a engine rebuild or maybe a new engine

 

Service intervals on belts is usually x number of years or x miles, whichever comes first. I'd have a dig about online to see if you can find the recommended intervals for your particular car. As you say, rubber belts deteriorate over time and I would much rather pay a few hundred for it to be replaced than a few thousand for an engine rebuild or replacement engine.

 

Is that a 2018 model? Are you sure it hasn't got a timing chain.

 

No mate, it's the newer 2018- version 1.0 Litre with turbo. Pretty sure it's a belt.

As an aside, a previous car I had was a 3-series which I ran for 12 years and put on 100k miles. That had a chain, which went at that point rendering the car uneconomic!

 

What engine is it?

 

1.0 Litre with the small turbo. (SE TSI version)

 

https://www.volkswagen.co.uk/en/need-help/need-help-faqs/cambelt.html

It’s recommended every five years, get it done. Rubber perishes, think of how elastic bands thin and snap with age or if you keep stretching it repeatedly. Basically, it lasts five years but if you drive a lot you wear it out faster. You haven’t driven much so you’ve got the full five years out of it. At the rate you’re going it would take you 15 years to drive the number of miles you’re wanting to have done before you change it and it would be long dead and your engine ruined.

 

I'd get it done, but not at a main dealer.

 

Get it done mate. I had a XR2 when I was a young 'un and cambelt snapped on my way home from Brid. Recon engine needed Learnt my lesson that day, Swiftys down Carlton Industrial Estate. VW Audi specialists. Always been sound with me.

 

My wife has 1.0 vw UP 2014. Lifetime belt.
I've asked the question for you on Dubbed Out Community.

 

Orsenkaht - you've posted about Poggy Rec Bridge* so I guess you live in that neck of the woods.

I take my car to Ian at Crows Garage and he's kept it (same VW Polo) and me! on he road for 14 years. He also takes it to a garage in Stairfoot for its annual MOT.
Always found prices reasonable and for folk like myself who find anything under the bonnet a mystery** he's dependable.

* Done a brilliant job and Penny Pie Park with the surrounding trees is impressive. No longer is traffic backing up to the Hospital form the junction.
** I can play the piano tho'.

 

These things are only a guide and are affected by many variables.
I’ve assumed you don’t drive it like an idiot and have it maintained regular and that it hasn’t been exposed to regular extreme weather temperatures that would lead me to leave for another year as it is very low mileage and only coming upto 5 years.

ps
Interestingly VAG Germany say the following about a belt change interval,

““Take the example of overhead camshafts (DOHC): the camshafts are not driven by chain here, rather by a single-stage, low-friction toothed belt design with a 20 mm wide belt and load-reducing profiled belt wheels. Thanks to its high-end material specification, this toothed belt's service life reliably spans the entire life of the vehicle.””

However VAG UK say 5 years and are the only VAG to advise this, they were challenged to prove the technical info to back this and couldn’t and actually backtracked to
“” a belt change at 5 years was not mandatory. It was acceptable, they said, to simply check the belt condition after 5 years (and annually thereafter), and only change it “if necessary””.

 

Many, many thanks to all of you for your very helpful replies. Despite my Yorkshire tightness it's quite apparent this is not something I can leave to chance. So I shall compare prices and decide where to get it done.

John/Mat/JamDrop: Thanks for the common sense!
Daz: I was trying to remember the VW specialists at Carlton - many thanks!
Red-Taff: Yes - I know Crow's. Thanks. I agree about Penny Pie/The 'Freedom' Bridge!
Ik311: No, I don't drive like an idiot - at least not since I got a 2:1 on my Speed awareness Course! I'm trying to avoid the post-grad one!

This forum can be a truly brilliant place for this type of advice, so thanks again all!

 

Cambelt failure can be catastrophic...I've had two go, the first was past its service interval so my own fault, it went when I started up...non contact engine so not too expensive.
The second time was in a Vauxhall Combo van, (the belt well within its service life) on the A1 M1 link road near Leeds, the road was very busy but I was on the inside lane doing 60ish..there was no warning at all, just silence and a sense that the traffic in front had speeded up, once it dawned on me I went to pull onto the hard shoulder...the steering was nearly solid but I made it. The engine was wrecked internally .
The most alarming aspect was realising that if I had been at the motorway speed limit in either of the outside lanes in such horrendous traffic, or on a Smart motorway without the hard shoulder I would probably have been killed or seriously injured.
The moral of the tale is no matter what it costs don't risk it.

 

If it's rubbers it's goes on how long it's been on not just mileage..rubber perishes. Get it done cost a fortune if it snaps

 

When I was running driving school religiously changed every 30 k petrol diesel bit longer .

 

To what purpose though? It’ll only ever needing doing a maximum of twice, once at 5 years and once at 10, if the car is kept that long. The only way it would ever possibly save money having it done at 6 years is if you keep the car more than 10 but less than 12 years and you’re lucky and everything worked out fine. The possible slim benefit isn’t worse the risk of losing at cambelt chicken.