cambelt issues - sorted!

[Boothy]

Dropped the car off for the cambelt doing today at a specialist. The bloke seemed really switched on but he has just phoned saying my car a has a full cambelt cover or something which involves removing the drive shafts, engine mounts and allsorts of boll**ks!!! He said he will pretty much have to take the engine out to do it? This doesn't sound right to me? Surely VW wouldn't make a job like that so difficult? Any advice as he's probably gonna try charge me sh*t loads if he has to do all that crap!

[bacillus]

I was speaking to Al at Awesome recently and he was saying that they are finding cars like yours that need about 6 hours labour time to get the job done.

Good luck whatever...

[QD MBE]

Dropped the car off for the cambelt doing today at a specialist. The bloke seemed really switched on but he has just phoned saying my car a has a full cambelt cover or something which involves removing the drive shafts, engine mounts and allsorts of boll**ks!!! This doesn't sound right to me? Any advice as he's probably gonna try charge me sh*t loads if he has to do all that crap!

i know the Mk4 1.8T had to have the drivers side engine mount unbolted to allow the belt fit.  the belt actually runs through the mount.

not sure about the 2.0T or the Driveshaft bit...............

[Boothy]

I think he's saying that the engine mount release bolt can't be reached without taking the drive shaft out or something. Not what I needed ain't this.

[bennylenny88]

are you sure is not chain driven?

[Boothy]

Its defo a belt. He says some have a full cover and some a half? Not really sure what he's trying to describe to be honest. To me you can see the belt on the left of the engine (standing at the front). I can't recall seeing a cover or anything?

[bennylenny88]

sure thats not your aux belt?

[MAT ED30]

just forget it and take it to VW

[Boothy]

So much for being a 'specialist'! He hasn't phoned me back yet so I'll let you know the outcome.

[bondy]

they do take longer than the 1.8t to do, as was said earlier you will have to remove the engine mount to access it but you just use an engine support bar.

If he thinks the engine has to come out then you have got issues, he makes it sound so scary. Lets hope for the best.

[joesgti]

how many miles is this service??

[holepunch]

I was informed by a very helpful VW technician at my local dealership who had carried out this operation twice on my car that  they indeed have to disconnect the engine from the drive shafts and exhaust in order to move the engine enough to access the cambelt.  I also seem to remember that VW stipulate that this job takes 4 hours.

It might be an idea to have the £40 water pump changed at the same time because they are known to fail prematurely and it require exactly the same procedure to change it.

[holepunch]

are you sure is not chain driven?

The engine has both a timing chain right hand side and a belt on the left.

[bacillus]

how many miles is this service??

4 years or 60k miles is the VW recommendation.

[Top Cat]

Isnt this one of the main reasons why they changed to the new type engine in the Mk 6.