Cambelt + Water Pump Replacement - Official guidance

My 2017 T6 was in for service today at Colchester VW. I only got it 5 months ago but 1 previous owner and full vw service history. The history had no mention of cam belt and it's under all in plan so was expecting a recommendation for belt to be done.

Note mention when I collected just telling me brakes are low.

So maybe they are going european with 210k km interval.
 
Turbo5 said:
Mine is booked in for cam belt and water pump at VW Trafford Park in the morning , Just had a phone call off them telling me they have received notification from VW that they are no longer advising the 4 years rule an dits something like 120K Km and with mine being a 2018 with 36K mileage it doesn't need doing. . Booked the day off work etc could save £650 not having it done , it was only 3 weeks ago at the Preston VW van centre they told me I needed the cam belt and water pump changing before they would allow me to join the extended warranty plan
Confused now !
Click to expand...
Can you ask for change in thinking in writing from the Dealer & post here to help others ?
 
OK, but what are we looking at exactly? Don’t get me wrong I am literally about to spend £700 getting it done as it is 4 years old and would love to save that money, however I don’t want VW wriggling out of a warranty claim for a snapped belt based on someone on a forum posting a screenshot.

My van is a 2019 150 DSG so believe engine code to be CXFA or CXHA (not looked yet) but your screen shot is showing other codes?

Thanks
 
I asked for proof they shared with me what they had on the VW service interval site . It was an official VW commercial van centre not some local specialist centre. The notification came through on Monday and this van centre was ringing all its customers who had booked in for this work explaining it is not compulsory. If you are still unsure about your type of engine or my screen shot (mine is a 2018 204 DSG 4motion with 36K mileage) I would contact your VW van center and ask them. it will be the same answer. Your warranty won't cover rubber belts even if you have this mod done. The tensioner is covered . They checked out this point in the exclusions on the warranty document. I was waiting for 30 minutes so was chatting to people in the service centre about this point.

I still had the mod done, my logic (firstly I had booked the day off work ) I am an aerospace engineer and realise this belt spins around at 2000-3000rpm. it goes through a thermal cycle every time it's in use. it will see heat and freezing temperatures , it will be subject to contamination whether its rainwater, salt, grit oil coolant etc. It is most probably good for 10 years + and will have been tested but in the aerospace industry rubber seals etc are subject to age restrictions especially when selling spares nobody wants them if the manufacturing date was over 3 years ago. It's the same with anything there is always a risk factor, somebody's cam belt will fail maybe 100 will fail they will be lots of publicity because people talk about failures not about something not breaking. What about the 500K to 1M that haven't failed ? It's down to the individual to make that choice. They will be a lot of individuals and garages who make good money on this replacement. Every 4 years it's a repeat customer . they will plug this for years and play on your conscious, about your engine being destroyed if it goes and the cost to replace it. People will still have it done until they gain confidence it's ok to leave it.
Whilst forums are a fantastic places for information they can also be like looking at google about your medical conditions and scaring yourself to death.
 
t6blo said:
OK, but what are we looking at exactly? Don’t get me wrong I am literally about to spend £700 getting it done as it is 4 years old and would love to save that money, however I don’t want VW wriggling out of a warranty claim for a snapped belt based on someone on a forum posting a screenshot.

My van is a 2019 150 DSG so believe engine code to be CXFA or CXHA (not looked yet) but your screen shot is showing other codes?

Thanks
Click to expand...
I have same van as you with 16k on … no way am I doing it and this justifies what we’ve been saying for the last few years
 
Turbo5 said:
I asked for proof they shared with me what they had on the VW service interval site . It was an official VW commercial van centre not some local specialist centre. The notification came through on Monday and this van centre was ringing all its customers who had booked in for this work explaining it is not compulsory. If you are still unsure about your type of engine or my screen shot (mine is a 2018 204 DSG 4motion with 36K mileage) I would contact your VW van center and ask them. it will be the same answer. Your warranty won't cover rubber belts even if you have this mod done. The tensioner is covered . They checked out this point in the exclusions on the warranty document. I was waiting for 30 minutes so was chatting to people in the service centre about this point.

I still had the mod done, my logic (firstly I had booked the day off work ) I am an aerospace engineer and realise this belt spins around at 2000-3000rpm. it goes through a thermal cycle every time it's in use. it will see heat and freezing temperatures , it will be subject to contamination whether its rainwater, salt, grit oil coolant etc. It is most probably good for 10 years + and will have been tested but in the aerospace industry rubber seals etc are subject to age restrictions especially when selling spares nobody wants them if the manufacturing date was over 3 years ago. It's the same with anything there is always a risk factor, somebody's cam belt will fail maybe 100 will fail they will be lots of publicity because people talk about failures not about something not breaking. What about the 500K to 1M that haven't failed ? It's down to the individual to make that choice. They will be a lot of individuals and garages who make good money on this replacement. Every 4 years it's a repeat customer . they will plug this for years and play on your conscious, about your engine being destroyed if it goes and the cost to replace it. People will still have it done until they gain confidence it's ok to leave it.
Whilst forums are a fantastic places for information they can also be like looking at google about your medical conditions and scaring yourself to death.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the detailed reply @Turbo5

I will email my local van centre and ask.
 
Just to add that Martin's VW in Basingstoke confirmed to me verbally last week that the 4 year time rule has been removed at the beginning or July just as I was looking at booking one for a 4yr old 38k mile van
 
I am on 50k and just over the 4 years. Was going to book in towards end of summer when nearer 56k service interval so good news.

Whilst 4 years seems a little excessively short what would a realistic mileage be to be on the safe side. Above quoted 130k, i have seen 120 mentioned and when i enquired got told 140 ???

down side i still got to pay for the DSG oil that wasn’t done by previous owner at 40K

VW still quoting end September for bookings. Now vehicle in my name so called out VW Assist due to amber emission light on (second time). Great guy who confirmed software never been updated since new so did an upgrade and gave me a voucher for 8 x Adblue Top Ups in the event it now consumes more AdBlue which he doubts will happen.

Begs the question what have main stealers been doing every time it has been in for a service? Mate from Mercedes says they don’t do them either as they do not get their time covered by manufacturer.
 
Maintenance intervals are normally calculated based on mean time before failure with a considerable safety factor applied.
If the manufacturer states a service interval for replacement it should be based on engineering facts.
 
Regions with harsh conditions - 120k km for cambelt
Western Europe - 220k km.
I have two T6s. On one of them there was no serious maintenance done before I bought it at 210k km. Main region of operation - Germany.
Cambelt/rollers were noisy and the kit was changed at 210k. I prayed while driving after collecting the car from seller but it was all fine.

Changing the kit at 120k is done in harsh condition regions but based on real life experience of cars from these regions, this tends to be an overkill. The belt at 120k is usually perfectly fine.

I changed the kit on the other T6 at 120k just because it's not expensive (less than 200 EUR for work) and why not?

Sometime around 2012 VW changed the cambelt cover for T5s - the old cover had space in it allowing a ripped v-belt get into the toothed belt and becoming a meat grinder for everything inside the cambelt area. A replacement updated cover solves this issue.
 
Last edited:
Then what about the water pumps and alternator belts that we replaced at the same time as they were 'service items' and likely to fail before 8 year cambelt change?
When do we replace these now?
 
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