Cambelt Lifespan

[darkhorse1210]

Just thought this maybe useful for anyone worried about the cambelt/water pump on their GTi.

My GTi is a 51 plate (registered Jan 2002) which has been garaged from new. It has 25k on the clock but never had a cambelt change (despite being 8+ years old). VW advice (I believe) is to change thre cambelt every 40k miles or every 4 years (whichever comes frst).

I replaced the belt/pump last week and the guy told me the existing belt it was still in reasonable condition but said that the plastic runners were showing signs of wear and they would likely have gone before the belt.

As I said, this is just for info, please note VDub's advice too.

[williamz]

I was in a similar situation a couple of weeks back, mine is a 1.4E however.

I got my cambelt and water pump changed, 51k on the clock and an X reg so 10 years old, no service history really so not sure if it had been done before but by the looks of the belt it hadnt, still had a few miles left on it apparently tho and the plastic runners were all near enough like new.

[williamz]

I get mine done every 40k so like every 18 month for me.

wow you do some mileage!!

[sciroccotune]

I replaced the belt/pump last week and the guy told me the existing belt it was still in reasonable condition but said that the plastic runners were showing signs of wear and they would likely have gone before the belt.

I believe that this is correct, the belt may last longer but the associated runners are not all that good.

If anything like the Polo/Golf the tensioners are not 'normal' bearings they are nylon or some plastic and can break up with little prior warning – so deffo worth doing.