Piston Slap: Belts, Chains and Fahrvergngen

Steve writes:

Hi Sajeev, I own a 2005 VW Passat with V6 that has 92000 miles on the odo. VW says I should replace the timing belt ASAP. I let my last Passat (2001.5 V6) go until 120K and my local dealer’s shop lectured me on the danger of letting it go for so long. How much am I tempting fate by waiting until I get to 120K this time? Is a timing belt change too complicated for a decent independent mechanic to tackle? Your sage advice would be most appreciated.

There are a number of people on the VW forums that are posting that VW issued some kind of revised maintenance schedule for TB’s? I bought mine used (from a VW dealer) so I may not be on the mailing list. As usual, the opinions run the gamut. I will be very interested in the comments on this issue. And, I will check with my mechanic (authorized VW repair shop, non-dealer) on Monday to see what he says.

Sajeev answers:

Let’s rant for a moment: WTF is up with a mainstream sedan running a timing belt in the current millennia? Most (perhaps all) of the Japanese carmakers stepped up to timing chains for long term cost savings, after (the chain lovers) in Detroit did their “100k between tune ups” shtick in the 1990s.

Wait, scratch that: according to Edmunds, your Passat needs a new timing belt at 105,000 miles. So get ready for a big bill, 5k miles after everyone else gets new spark plugs. Fahrvergnügen!

Now, about getting chastised: nobody wants to get stranded by a broken belt. Murphy’s Law says it’ll fail when you’re in the middle of nowhere. Far worse, Google searching says you have an interference engine, so neglecting the belt results in a game of Valve Roulette: which one stays down and gets Piston Slapped?

Yes, you deserved that lecture from the dealer. Now redeem yourself by finding an independent, non-franchise mechanic who uses Internet repair databases and runs a clean shop. Let them change the belt (with a VW-sourced replacement) and save a little cheddar in the process. And do whatever else the owner’s manual suggests too: you only dig into the motor every 105k, so save the labor costs by doing multiple things at one time.

[Send your queries to mehta@ttac.com]