Timing Belt Kit with a Courtesy Car in Genuine Boxed

A timing belt kit: the same job with a car to drive, because this is most of a day and it is rarely convenient.

We are an independent parts supplier. We are not Volkswagen, Audi, Seat or Skoda, and we are not appointed by any of them. Those are their trademarks and what we sell are parts that fit their cars. The useful thing about this group is that four badges share platforms and share parts, so the same component fits a Golf, an A3, a Leon and an Octavia and costs four different amounts at four different counters. We list it once, at one price, and tell you which platform it belongs to.

Specification and fitment

• Fits: Golf Mk5 Mk6 Mk7 Mk8, Passat B6 B7 B8, A3 8P 8V 8Y, A4 B8 B9, Leon 1P 5F KL, Octavia 1Z 5E NX, and the other group cars on the same platforms
• Platform: chosen above. This kit is a platform part rather than a model part, which is why one listing covers four badges. This part is shared across the group. The Volkswagen, the Audi, the Seat and the Skoda all take it, it is the same component in four different boxes, and the price here is the same whichever badge is on your car. Choose your badge above for your records, not because it changes anything.
• Engine: 1.6 and 2.0 TDI common rail, 1.9 TDI Pumpe Duse, and the belt driven petrol engines. This group changes specification mid production and does it on a platform basis rather than a model year basis, so two cars registered the same week can take different parts. Send us the VIN with the order and we check the part against the build data before anything is dispatched. It takes two minutes and it is the difference between a part that fits and a return.
• Production dates: 2003 to 2022 depending on platform
• Quality: supplied in the group's own packaging with the group part number on it. Worth the premium where a warranty claim, a lease return or a full main dealer history depends on it, and not otherwise
• Part number: cross referenced to the group part number for your VIN and confirmed before dispatch. We do not print one number against a listing that covers several supersessions, because on this group the supersessions are the whole point
• The failure this addresses: The timing belt is the single most important scheduled job on most of these engines and it is governed by time as well as mileage. Five years is the figure that matters on a low mileage car, and a belt that has done 30,000 miles in eight years is a belt that is out of date. Every one of these engines is an interference design, which means a snapped belt puts valves into pistons and turns a three hundred pound job into a cylinder head or an engine.
• Labour time: four to six hours, and the tensioning procedure is the part that cannot be rushed
• Coding: no coding, but the adaptation channels should be reset with a diagnostic system afterwards or the car keeps running on values it learned from the failed part
• Also needed: coolant where the pump is disturbed, engine oil and filter, the crankshaft bolt which is single use on most of these, and the auxiliary belt
• Torque: the crankshaft bolt is torqued then angled and is single use on almost every engine here. Reusing one is how a correctly fitted belt still ends in a cylinder head
• Interval: every five years or at the mileage in your handbook, whichever comes first. On this group the five years is the number that catches people out, because a low mileage car looks like it has years left and does not
• Weight: approximately 8.6 kilograms
• Warranty: three years or 36,000 miles, whichever comes first
• Do the water pump: Do the water pump with the belt. It is driven by the belt, it is behind the same covers, it is a fraction of the parts cost and it is most of the labour. A water pump that fails eighteen months after a belt change means paying the belt labour again, and it is the commonest false economy in this shop.
• Interference engines: every engine on this page is one. A snapped belt means valves meeting pistons, and the repair starts at a cylinder head
• Locking tools: the camshaft and crankshaft locking tools are in the kits that say so, and they are not optional on any of these engines
• Pumpe Duse: if your engine is a 1.9 PD, tell us, because the kit and the procedure are different
• Five year rule: we diarise it and remind you, because a belt that is out of date on time rather than mileage is the commonest engine failure we see

What arrives

• the timing belt, tensioner and every idler
• the water pump and its gasket or O ring
• the auxiliary belt and tensioner where the kit includes them
• a single use crankshaft bolt
• camshaft and crankshaft locking tools where included
• coolant and an oil service where the kit includes them
• printed instructions with torque figures and the tensioning sequence

Fitting

Four to six hours on most of these, eight to eleven on the V6. The tensioning procedure and the single use crankshaft bolt are the two steps that decide whether the belt lasts the interval, and both are in the instructions with the figures. Choose the fitted option and we do it, and we diarise the five year date.

Which version to buy

Two decisions matter here and price is neither of them. The first is whether to change the water pump, and the answer is always yes: it is belt driven, it is behind the same covers, and a pump that fails eighteen months later means paying the whole labour again. The second is metal impeller against plastic, and on an engine you intend to keep the metal one removes the failure rather than resetting its clock. The timing belt is the single most important scheduled job on most of these engines and it is governed by time as well as mileage. Five years is the figure that matters on a low mileage car, and a belt that has done 30,000 miles in eight years is a belt that is out of date. Every one of these engines is an interference design, which means a snapped belt puts valves into pistons and turns a three hundred pound job into a cylinder head or an engine.