The issue is not wear and tear, it's that the rubber belt deteriorates with time, and a cam belt failure is usually catastrophic.

This is also a problem with tyres on cars that have very low annual milages with tyres that are not particularly worn but are old.

It's a frequent problem with caravans too, where the tyres are old but still have loads of tread on them. Take them on the motorway at 60 and yet get a serious blow-out and that's your caravan written off and your clothes all the way down the hard shoulder. Unfortunately too common each summer.

VAG revised cam belt replacements down to 4 years/40k miles for older cars as some engines had parts that self destructed - the engine in my 2001 1.416v Octavia was one such engine where the carp plastic pulleys failed at just over 50k miles. Fortunately I was still under warranty at the time and the belt didn't fall off so the engine was OK. I stuck with 4 year/40k miles after that - the original manual said 110k miles.

I think the 1.9sdi is an old school mechanical distribution pump, pre pd, engine made of sterner stuff so I think you should be just fine especially as the water pump has been done before.

Edited by Big John on 12/07/2021 at 12:09