Why did you not research this before buying. I always find out about service costs and other replacement costs before buying, that way there are no nasty surprises ahead and if I am not happy I just walk away. That is why I never bought a Subaru Impreza turbo despite looking twice, a service every 6 months was going to cost me £2000 over 5 years, a Ford at the time was service every year and was costing me about £700 over 5 years.

When we bought the Leon 1.4 TSi the situation with the cambelt was very confusing. When we looked at the Golf the VW salesman said it was replace every 3 years or 30,000 miles. I could not believe that because for a higher mileage user it was going to be very frequent. Looked on the Skoda site and it clearly siad that in the new TSi the belt was for the life of the engine and no maintenance was required. The Seat salesman did not have a clue and said it would be the same as the diesels. Cannot remember what they were, seem to think it was 4 years.

So I decided to e-mail Seat and get a definitive answer in writing, this is what they said copied from the e-mail:

So for me doing 8,000 miles a year it would be 5 years but for a high mileage user potentially 120,000 miles both of which appeared reasonable.

Why doesn't the OP contact VW?

I know of at least 5 broken cambelts on 5 different cars, Ford Capri, Ford Escort, Vauxhall Vectra, Fiat Punto and Mazda MX5 those are the ones that spring to mind without thinking too much.

The Capri and Mazda were OK as not interference engines.

Edited by Wackyracer on 01/08/2017 at 13:58

Not to me it isn't.. 5yrs for a modern quality belt is unreasonable to the point of absurdity. On that basis our 17yr old Focus would be on its third cambelt.

Any other items the car trade would like us to be replaced 'regardless of condition' when 5yrs old? Tyres? Brake piston seals? Suspension bushes? It is high time the motor industry got its act together on the vexed and expensive question of cambelt servicing.

I change the belt as per the manufacturers recomendations for 3 reasons

1 I accept that the manufacturer knows more than me about their engines

2 It does not cost a fortune in the whole cost of motoring

3 I am not an idiot and don't like palaying Russian Roulette with expensive assets.

To expand on point 2 over 5 years the Leon would have cost about £4500 on petrol, £620 on servicing, £100 on MOT's, £1000 on insurance, £150 on VED, 6 tyres @ £60 each £360 plus other minor bits such as £120 for 2 brake fluid changes etc. Total cost £6850, lets call it £7000.

The cam belt change inc a water pump on Seat menu is £459 so that adds another 6.5% to your motoring costs which is 1/2 of sod all.

If you cannot afford to follow the manufacturers recomendations or simply believe you know better give up motoring please for the sake of other peoples safety. Not in the least bit bothered if you die in a fireball when your cam belt breaks in the outside lane and ypur 20 year old tyres fail when the engine sizes and locks up the wheels.

When I fitted the Focus Zetec engine to the Caterham it came from Ford sealed in shrink wrap on a yellow plastic crate (containing some silica gell bags) where it had been stored for 5 years. The engine sump was full of some thick green gloop that was intended only for storage and a 5 year old cam belt. The sump was being changed so the oil was drained and when in the car was filled with a suitably cheap 5w30 to flush the engine out which was replaced after about 50 miles with some more 5w30. The cam belt was left since Ford recommend 10 years or 100,000 miles. When the engine was 10 years old (2014) I bought a Gates kit which cost about £100 which included the belt, idler pulley and tensioner and changed them. Although it had done onlt 10,000 miles approx it was stupid not to spend £100 since a snapped belt would have cost way more that that to sort. In truth it was an excellent decisison since the idler pulley had quite a bit of play in the bearings.

All these Zetecs were built in 2004 and were unused when the Mk 1 Focus stopped production. They are still being sold by several specialits companies. The engines are now 13 years old.

Last year on a website I frequent there were two enthusiasts who thought they knew better and ignored advice. One drained the gloop out of the sump and after he had fitted the new sump refilled with the thick gloop. He could not get oil pressure before starting but carried on and trashed the engine before it had mooved a single yard. Another ignored the advice to change the cam belt and had it snap within a few weeks wrecking his new engine. Both were out of pocket for several thousand pounds.

The Capri and Mazda were OK as not interference engines

No idea about Mazda's but from memory the 1600 Pinto was non-interference but the 2 litre more often than not ended up with bent valves etc.

Edited by skidpan on 01/08/2017 at 16:02

The Capri was indeed a 2.0 and we just lined up the timing marks and fitted a new belt. It was 30+ years ago, the car was my sisters boyfriends.

Volkswagen clearly don't have a clue. One dealership told me 50k. Another told me 60k, another told me 90k. And my local mechanic told me 5 years or 120k!