Skoda 1.6TDI snapped cambelt - who's responsible?

[Fiesta1.0L]

Brother has a Karoq with the 1.6 Diesel. 55k miles, timing belt broke on the motorway.

He had it picked up on a flatbed to his dealer who put on a new belt and tried to start it (with no inspection, yikes).

They're now saying £4.5k to strip for an inspection, £9-10k on top for replacement/repair.

Supposedly Skoda centrally will help (no definition of what that means).

It's out of warranty now, but been dealer serviced. About 4 years old, most of his mileage has been gentle slogs on the motorway at lowish revs (it's the DSG) so this is an unexpected fail.

Any advice on how to press them to sort this without the bill (which is more than the car is worth)? What have they done in the past?

I think interval is 75k for the belt change.

[Belle427]

I would say that putting the belt back on and trying to start it wasn't a wise idea really but most of the damage was probably already done.
That's not to say it could have made it worse too.
Tough position to be in but I'd try using that angle personally.

[PurpleTurtle]

How old is it?

Just a random Google search says that Skoda UK recommend changing every 5yrs, rather than on a mileage basis.

https://www.skodalondon.com/service-mot/cambelt-re...

You'd be a bit peeved if this expired at 61 months old, but only 55k miles, I'm sure ....

[Sheepshanks]

The 5yr thing seems to be very much a VAG UK demand - I checked with VW Germany our wife's Tiguan and they said 210,000kms with no age limit. When I asked why the UK says 5yrs, they stopped responding.

Having said that, you would expect that, based on the 5yr service interval demanded here, Skoda would cover the cost of an early failure.

OP: Any idea what failed? It's almost unheard of for the belts to break, but sometimes a tensioner can fail. The 2litre has a smooth water pump pully so even that seizing shouldn't break the belt - don't know if 1.6 is same, but it's basically the same engine.


Won't help here, but for anyone else - if you've got a VAG car and are getting it dealer serviced then buy the All In Service / Recovery MOT / Warranty package. It basically gives you the extended warranty free.

[Fiesta1.0L]

Thanks for the replies - I've got a closeup picture showing fraying of the side of the belt, but can't see if teeth are missing/the tensioner is broken. I'm hearing 2nd hand, but not impressed with the dealer so far.

[Sheepshanks]

My experience is of a few VW and SEAT dealers and it's mostly been extremely poor. I think it's very much up to the dealer to push these things with VAG and some are better than others. The service advisors are generally completely useless although the service managers (but generally have a more fancy job title now) are usually pretty good if you can get access to them.

If you go to UK HQ then all the VW Group use the same 3rd party call centre - we recently had a reply about our SEAT that was completely written as if it was an Audi! That organisation seems totally designed to fob people off.

Skoda dealers generally used to have a very good reputation and our local one was very well regarded but I'm hearing less than good reports about them now too.