Seeking advice re. cambelt

[Ernest]

I have a five year old T5 2.5 diesel van and have just booked into SMG for service/MOT. The person booking van in asked if I had had the cambelt changed. he claims this needs doing every 4 years.
As the van has only done 20,000 quite gentle miles I am not sure that a new cambelt is required - my understanding was that cambelts need changing ever 60,000 mile.
I have looked in the handbook but no guidance whatsoever on cambelt change times.

I don't want to risk not having it done as I understand that failure could be serious but I don't want to spend £600 if not required.
Any advice on this would be much appreciated.
Best Wishes
Ernest

[mark]

yep it needs to be changed along with the water pump..............that is if you have no record of it being changed previously

mark

[ELVIS]

Ask Alex, Max and Caddy, he's a vw mastertech

[jimpainter]

I think the t5's run gears rather than a cambelt. They have a rubber like bush mounted on some gears which do wear. I think the 1.9 t5's run a normal cambelt but I could be wrong.

Jim

[jimpainter]

http://www.vwt4forum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=170611" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There you go, I thought it was. No cambelts

[Ernest]

Hi all

Thanks very much for advice - as the advice, taken overall, was still inconclusive (or rather differed) I phoned SMG again and asked them to d/check if the T32 2.5 Tdi 2009 was cambelt or gears. He went away and after a few minutes came back and confirmed that no cambelt, just gears, and these with a service schedule of 100,000 miles or very 8 years.

So a £600 bill deferred for a few years

Best Wishes
Ernest

[moospop]

Change where you have work done on your van, if you would not have questioned it you would probably have been £600 lighter...and seriously would you have known if or if not they would have changed your non existent cam belt??...

[Ernest]

Yes...it does make you wonder re. the credibility of some garages - fortunately in the VW world there are plenty of good honest ones.

Ernest