5 Year old VW Golf Should I need to replace cam belt?

fred990

We've two 1.8t vw's one 1998 and 2001. I've changed the belt/pump/tensioner/relay roller every 4/5 years on both from new. Neither do mega miles but apart from one plastic impeller water pump (about ten years ago that had one vane left) all of the parts come off looking like/rotating like new!

It's a big job for diy, saves a ton of money (even at TPS prices) but I do wonder how the 40k/4 yr thing from VW UK ever started?

Our Transporter is due the same belt change at eight years old. The first one I didn't have time to do but have just bought the replacement kit and timing tools, I imagine it'll be loads of work to remove and replace perfectly serviceable parts! 

DIYhelp76

I don't know the reason why, but surely stop-start traffic congestion would be similar in most European cities at least?  The difference in advice doesn't make any sense to me.  I've forgotten all the ins and outs of what this helpful VW dealer told me as he went into a lot of detail, but he was very persuasive and in effect was doing himself out of the business as I had rung him for a quote to replace the cambelt! So I don't disbelieve him.  He talked about comparing the specs and manuals and all sorts and said the UK vehicles and the cambelt components don't differ between the UK/European models. He seemed to know what he was talking about.  I decided to take the gamble, at least for some more miles/years and hope it doesn't backfire on me.

coffeehound

The quote from the honestjohn site (where they aggregate info from various sources including reports from the public) implies they have evidence of failures after 60k miles and 5 years.  (I don't know how many 1.4 VW engines there are, or what differences might be between them wrt timing belts.)  

Given that it'll need replacing sooner or later, it's only a marginal saving by running an extra year or whatever, so doesn't seem worth the risk, IMO.

coffeehound

There's a note in the HJ site against mk7 Golf 

5-1-2019: Contradictory information about timing belt replacement on 60k mile Volkswagen Golf EA211 1.4TSI engine. One Volkswagen dealer said no need to change. The supplying dealer said it needed a fresh belt at a cost of £450. The original schedule said 133,000 miles. Experience of belt failure had led to this being revised to 40,000 miles.