Cambelt + Water Pump Replacement - Official guidance

Mine's being done right now, at Camper King, Banbury, as that is just down the road for me.
50k miles, 66 plate(my bad...), full kit including waterpump, all stretch bolts, auxiliary and tensioner. £540 the lot.
The last 2 years it has been pretty much unused. 1800 miles between MOTs!
 
Well I've phoned around and got 4 quotes today for replacement of the Cambelt, Water Pump and Auxiliary Belt. I called 2 VW 'official' Service Centres and 2 local independent VW specialists. VW Tewkesbury quoted £866, VW Swindon £670 and the independents (both using all VW parts) and were both in at around £580. The two independents are only split by the fact that one of them can update the VW Digital Service History. Those costs would all drop by varying amounts if the Auxiliary belt is NOT changed but I reckon that for the sake of an extra few quid, I'd get it done anyway. I've emailed VW Tewkesbury suggesting that they might have made a mistake with their estimate as they are almost £200 more than their cousins in Swindon but I doubt if I will get a response.
 
I wonder if Swindon have quoted without VAT @Ayjay.

When my trusted Indy did our van last year he only charged £30 for the aux belt, with no extra labour - my local VW van centre quoted an extra £240 to do the aux belt at the same time as the cam belt and water pump!
 
@Noddy996. The Swindon price is inc. VAT.
@Paynewright. With my level of mechanical knowledge (which I'm usually happy with!), you might as well be asking that question of a chimp!

Back to prices, what I find weird is the quotes for doing the job. They all said that the auxiliary belt needs to be inspected but does NOT need to be changed automatically as they are not lifed by time or mileage. The indies both say that they will charge another £50 if the auxiliary belt needs changing (ie. cam belt and water pump only would be about £530). VW Tewkesbury say that the belt itself would cost another £37 but any additional work is buried in the overall figure for labour (£504). VW Swindon quoted an extra 'fixed price' of £120 for the auxiliary belt and labour - without the aux belt, their price for just the cam belt and water pump actually starts to get a bit more competitive at £550, particularly when you factor in the fact that I will probably get them to do a service and MOT at the same time which will both be covered by my 'All In' Warranty.

Just to finish, VW Tewkesbury (aka Arthur Spriggs) actually responded to my email querying the highest (by miles) overall cost of £866 for cam belt, water pump and aux belt that I mentioned in my earlier post with this: 'The price for the job is what I sent to you, it sounds like an excellent deal that you have been able to secure elsewhere. I am unable to discount this price'.
 
I’ve just had a cambelt and water pump replaced on my T6 today. Genuine VW parts and at least £240 less than VW quoted !
 
435 was the invoice from Camper King hq near.Banbury(or J12 on the M40), less VAT, 520 including. Done in a day. Includes aux belt and all tensioners/pulleys.
 
I picked my van up from VW Van Centre Swindon earlier today after a service, MOT and cam belt/water pump replacement. The service and MOT were part of my All In plan but the cam belt and water pump bill was £550 inc. VAT. They put the replaced parts in a box for me to have a look at and I know that looks aren't everything and I've never seen a cam belt come new out of a box but I reckon the old one looked pretty much like it could have done. The van is 4 years old and has 11000 on the clock and an under engine tray has been fitted for most of that.
 
Last edited:
Ayjay said:
I picked my van up from VW Van Centre Swindon earlier today after a service, MOT and cam belt/water pump replacement. The service and MOT were part of my All In plan but the cam belt and water pump bill was £550 inc. VAT. They put the replaced parts in a box for me to have a look at and I know that looks aren't everything and I've never seen a cam belt come new out of a box but I reckon the old one looked pretty much like it could have done. The van is 4 years old and has 11000 on the clock and an under engine tray has been fitted for most of that.
Click to expand...
I recently had my cam belt, pump etc changed having gone from 30k where VW recommended the change to 40k, and like you, the parts taken off my T6 looked anything but warn. I reckon they'd have been good for at least another 10k and probably 20k.
 
I had mine booked in for next Friday. Its just approaching 100k
Then the clutch fell out of another van so thats going in its place. Guess it will have to hold on a bit longer !
 
Has anyone actually experienced a premature cam belt failure on a T6 ?
( particularly below 80k miles)

is this a money making scheme by VWUK ? (Rhetorical question)

presumably the info supplied by Gates, the belt manufacturers of the belt (as supplied previously by @Loz ) stating the belt is good for 8 years would set a president,

regardless of what VWUK claim is the service interval, which incidentally is against VW GMBH advice ; to replace the belt at 210km or 8 years !

why is the UK climate & driving conditions so much more aggressive to the timing belt, than say Calais (less than 20 miles away) !
 
Last edited:
Perfectos said:
Has anyone actually experienced a premature cam belt failure on a T6 ?
( particularly below 80k miles)

is this a money making scheme by VWUK ? (Rhetorical question)

presumably the info supplied by Gates, the belt manufacturers of the belt (as supplied previously by @Loz ) stating the belt is good for 8 years would set a president,

regardless of what VWUK claim is the service interval, which incidentally is against VW GMBH advice ; to replace the belt at 210km or 8 years !

why is the UK climate & driving conditions so much more aggressive to the timing belt, than say Calais (less than 20 miles away) !
Click to expand...
IMO it was certainly a money-making exercise in my case as certainly to the naked eye the replaced parts looked almost new, I guess it really depends on how the vehicle is both driven and looked after?
 
St4n99 said:
Is that for a certain engine buddy, my vag specialist has told me my 150 model states 4 years or up to 150k ,I have over 90k on mine at the moment and my last service they did give belt a check and all looked gd but it's definitely on cards for next service ,I have used my mechanic for a will so do trust his work but am over the threshold if that's for all model's o_O
Click to expand...
They do degrade with age - I have a trusty mechanic too, sounded him out about a cam belt on our T5.1 which had only covered 32k in seven years but never had a belt change. He was inning and arghing if it was necessary despite us both seeing the 4 (sometimes 5) years advice. I went for it out of caution and when he showed me the old belt I think I made the right choice. One of the edges definitely looked aged/worn/less intact. Nothing to suggest an issue with the mechanicals and who knows, could have lasted another few years but we were keeping the van and the value was climbing at the time so it seemed a no brainier.
Like I say, glad I did it.
 
Dale said:
IMO it was certainly a money-making exercise in my case as certainly to the naked eye the replaced parts looked almost new, I guess it really depends on how the vehicle is both driven and looked after?
Click to expand...
Letting drivers blow their engines up would make VW even more money in the short term
 
It seems it's one of those costs you have to grin and bear with VW. Mine was four years old with a mileage of just under 14,000 miles and couldn't understand the need for a change at such low mileage and age. But VW work on the fear factor and I ended having the work done as they recommended. The price of being a T6 owner!!!
 
I've had 2 VW cambelts let go, one on a very old 1043cc Polo, then on a newer 1.8 Injection Golf.
No idea if they were due or not, but the Polo was scrapped, the Golf was just under 1600 quid to fix. 25 years ago!
Would you be happy trusting an elastic band to hold up for 4 years? That is a rubber band, under massive tension. Sitting still is worse than moving.
So I don't mess about these days, my Golf TDi is an 18 plate, with just 30K miles. it will be done soon.
 
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