cam belt or car dump?? dangerous?

richard734

I have just had exactly this debate over my 12yr old Megane convertible. She is in mint condition, never let me down (and the roof comes off!)
Cambelt needs doing and some other work, proably going to cost about £600 all in on a car only booking £1000 - £1500.

In the end, I figured, what could I replace it with, that I was confident on its history and is as likely to last another 12 years?

She is booked in for a week of love at the mechanics in August...

bigjl

I had a Zafira go into limp.mode at 70mph on the A13 whilst on blues and twos!

Instant drop in power and speed, and nearly got rearwndered by inpatient idiots trying to follow.

In your instance i would do as previously advised, see what it needs for the next mot and if it needs little or jothing done then put on a cambelt and waterpump.

I had a Seat Ibiza as a patrol car when i worked for a security co back in '93-4. They replaced some of our Fiesta 1.8D's with the 1.9D Ibiza that is closely related to your Polo. Was a very reliable and well built little car, not too much to go wrong and 50mpg even when hammered.

VW's of the age of yours were actually a lot better than many people think. In the same way as modern VW's aren't actually as good as people think.

s_b

brother in law is like OP and he had a polo that he only spent the minimum on at mot time, same year too ,,the belt popped and i declared it scrap
he now runs a clio with the same blinkered attitude

bigspender55

You have all been SOOOO helpful here. Thank you.

So.. I've booked the car in for an MOT 2 months early and I'll see how he gets on. If he sails through I think I'll have to respond to his reliability and loyalty by replacing his belt. If issues arise that make it not cost effective, then I have 2 months to find a new car till the MOT runs out.

Fingers crossed till Monday. Hopefully I wont be back with a part 2 !