VW Polo cam belt

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freitasm

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#173249 16-May-2015 14:33

Hey folks... Looking at a VW Polo with 50,000km. Wondering what mileage for a new cam belt and if anyone has any idea of price...

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#1306340 16-May-2015 16:13

Hey

For parts (Relay Roller with Bracket, Water Pump, V-Belt & G12 Coolant) , anywhere between $500 and $700 and then add labour. I have a VW Passat and the cambelt change last year came to just shy of $2k (however I did get engine seals / gaskets replaced at the same time and would reccomend you do that also).

Wholesalers like Giltraps in Auckland can sort you out for parts however theres a VW dealer in Christchurch who sells new parts on trademe and will no doubt give you an accurate price on parts if you give them the right engine code/details http://www.trademe.co.nz/Members/Listings.aspx?member=2913701

With VW's I have found they love to have their balljoints replaced...there are many! There are also many good aftermarket suppliers of electrical parts in both US, AU and NZ (switches, buttons, window switches etc).

Goosey

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#1306343 16-May-2015 16:23

I found this a great resource for building knowledge 1aAuto

freitasm

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#1306350 16-May-2015 16:28

Thanks, good feedback.

lxsw20

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#1306355 16-May-2015 16:54

VW recommend every 4 years or 100k by the looks. Personally I'd ignore the 4 years bit as it seems overkill to me. It's depends if you're willing to take that risk all the same.

itxtme

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#1306374 16-May-2015 17:52

Is it definitely a Cam belt and not chain driven??

freitasm

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#1306414 16-May-2015 20:09

Yes, so we are told.

Bung

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#1306454 16-May-2015 23:09

freitasm: Yes, so we are told.

Were you also told the year and engine capacity?

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freitasm

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#1306496 17-May-2015 10:10

This is a 2008, 1.4 model.

andrewNZ

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#1306503 17-May-2015 10:22

lxsw20: VW recommend every 4 years or 100k by the looks. Personally I'd ignore the 4 years bit as it seems overkill to me. It's depends if you're willing to take that risk all the same.

the amount of risk varies by engine. Some have room for valves to be open if when the piston is top dead centre, some don't. No room means the piston/s hit valves and it can get very expensive very fast when a cambelt snaps.

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#1306508 17-May-2015 10:49

The engine appears to use one belt from crankshaft to one camshaft and another belt coupling both camshafts. So 2nd belt is quite short. Smells complicated, if VW put a time limit as well as a km limit I'd follow their advice.

lxsw20

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#1306542 17-May-2015 11:33

andrewNZ:
lxsw20: VW recommend every 4 years or 100k by the looks. Personally I'd ignore the 4 years bit as it seems overkill to me. It's depends if you're willing to take that risk all the same.
the amount of risk varies by engine. Some have room for valves to be open if when the piston is top dead centre, some don't. No room means the piston/s hit valves and it can get very expensive very fast when a cambelt snaps.

Yes known as interference and non interference. I still think 4 years sounds too short personally. More like 6-8.

Jase2985

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#1306580 17-May-2015 12:36

ive always treated cambelts as 100,000km items. Gates a large manufacture of timing/cam belts recommends following the manufacturers spec or 60,000miles which is 100,000km

ive had 2 cars still have their original belts at 130 and 165km and they were not far from the point of snapping.

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#1306607 17-May-2015 13:19

Jase2985: ive always treated cambelts as 100,000km items. Gates a large manufacture of timing/cam belts recommends following the manufacturers spec or 60,000miles which is 100,000km

ive had 2 cars still have their original belts at 130 and 165km and they were not far from the point of snapping.

I did the cam-belt in SWMBO's 16 year old Mazda MX5 a couple of months back - it had done about 85,000km. That's a non-interference motor - so the risk is of getting stranded somewhere - not engine damage. The old (original) belt looked like new - but there had been no leakage from cam or crank seals - a bit of oil leakage will kill them.
The cam belt, tensioners, water pump & gaskets, cam seals, crank seal, valve cover gasket came in a kit via Ebay USA. Delivered cost to my door was NZ$155.

Cheap deals for cambelt replacement often won't include replacement of seals and water pump - bad idea not to do this, but as well as the extra cost for the pump and seals etc, there's extra labour cost to do the job properly.

I'm not sure if the Polo 1.4 was sold in the US (probably not). Cam belt kits incl tensioners, pump etc seem to be available on Ebay UK for £100 - 125. Local prices for VAG (and other Euro) parts are obscene - perpetuating the commonly held belief that Euro cars are very expensive to maintain.
It's very important that the correct coolant is used (G12) - if a local garage or cam belt changing specialist is doing the job, then they should know this, but some do not. It's probably also true that small general workshops may be more familiar with Toyotas and Nissans, and may load the price for working on cars that they aren't familiar with - even if they may be no harder to work on. Next is the problem that the Euro trained specialists might be worth paying $120/hour for to maintain your Porsche, Audi RS8, M-series BMW, or AMG Mercedes, but probably way overkill to change a cam belt on an ordinary runabout like a polo/golf (or skoda/audi variants of the same cars).

mattwnz

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#1306627 17-May-2015 13:59

I would suggest reading the dog an lemon guide for the model, as that should contain a lot of useful info. It will probably be the best investment you can make when it comes to researching.

CitizenErased

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#1307704 19-May-2015 11:24

lxsw20:
andrewNZ:
lxsw20: VW recommend every 4 years or 100k by the looks. Personally I'd ignore the 4 years bit as it seems overkill to me. It's depends if you're willing to take that risk all the same.
the amount of risk varies by engine. Some have room for valves to be open if when the piston is top dead centre, some don't. No room means the piston/s hit valves and it can get very expensive very fast when a cambelt snaps.

Yes known as interference and non interference. I still think 4 years sounds too short personally. More like 6-8.

I'd say ignore the four year recommendation at your peril. Some engine designs put a lot more stress on the cam belt than others. I've heard of certain European cars being well known for snapping cam belts in a short space of time.

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