[Vwdiesel] 100,000 miles

[Terry Briggs]

That's the main reason it's good practice to change the belt and pulley 
together as a unit. Doesn't make sense not to.
On Oct 11, 2009, at 4:25 AM, William J Toensing wrote:

> Since I don't own a VW TDI, I can't really comment on how often you 
> should change the timming belt. However, VW diesels & probably all 
> diesels as well as many gas engine cars have what is called an 
> "interference" engine. This means that if the timming belt, chain, or 
> gears break, the valves could contact the pistons with costly 
> consequences.
> My daily driver, a 2001 Ford Focus ZX3 uses a timming belt & has an 
> interference engine. I saw a Focus advertised with a little over 
> 100,000 miles & a "new engine". She said she had the local Ford dealer 
> change her timming belt at 70,000 miles & at around 80,000 or 85,000 
> miles, the new timming belt failed. Turns out, the dealer failed to 
> replace the timming belt idler pulley & it seized, causing the "new" 
> timming belt to break, hence the need for a new engine. When I heard 
> this, I immediately had my Focus' timming belt changed. Ford 
> recommends a Focus timming belt change every 100,000 miles (or maybe 
> 125,000 miles, I will have to look in the owners manual). The old 
> timming belt  still looked good, BUT the idler pulley bearing was 
> loose & likely would have failed in 3,000 miles, the mechanic who 
> changed the belt estimated.  I don't know about the TDI, but the 
> timming belts on my Dasher & Quantum had a similar arrangement & I 
> replaced their idler pulleys too.
> Bill Toensing, Nevada City, CA
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