mk5 golf cambelt question

[trevk2]

ello,new here and was after a bit of advice,im just about to buy a mk5 golf gti,and as im a bit anal i been doing a bit of research on the old tinernet b4 i go out and spend a good few grand on one,and one thing i've found out is that they are due a cambelt,and water pump replacement at 4 years,or 80k miles,as im looking at round about an 2008 car the thought of spending over 10k on a car then having to spend another good few hundred notes dont sit well with me,the question is this,as i'm hoping to get a car with under 50k miles on it,would it be a stupid idea not to have the work done,as although the car is at the age it should have the work done,it is nowhere near the millage due for the work,any advice would be very helpful,thanks

[adyady1066]

I would never let any VAG cambelt go more than 60,000 miles and best practice is to do them every 40,000 with the water pumps for piece of mind. They have plastic impellers on them which crumble with age and make no noise when they fail. You'll know it has though when the temp goes through the roof and the head gasket cooks up.

Every VAG specialist has their own advice but for the price of getting a specialist to do the belt against the cost of the repairs is minimal in the long run.

I literally just did a belt on an 75,000 miles Mk4 Golf 1.4 which has the twin tensioner and secondary belt running the exhaust cam from the inlet cam which is the hard part to change. So what the previous 'specialist' did was to change one belt and not the other at 40k?!

Needless to say the belt was hanging by a thread and could have snapped at any minute, he did change the pump though so I suppose he had a basic idea...... just carried out with sheer stupidity.