Preventative maintenance - DPF & water pump

[Rocky95]

Hi all,

I own a Golf 2017 estate 2.0 tdi. Most reliable car I've owned so far. At 160,000 miles, it still rarely need oil top ups between oil changes for example and is still smooth to drive, doesn't smoke. I do my own oil changes every 7k.

I am happy to do more preventative maintenance with this car to keep it alive for the next 10-20 years.

The DPF is still the original and in good condition, it runs a regen more frequently than before, but not crazy. The start stop sometimes will auto disable.

Should I get the DPF cleaned at a specialist before it starts to show real symptoms of soot clogging in order to lower engine strain or is this a waste of money and possibly worse to tinker with the original parts in place? Therefore just wait until symptoms show.

For my next cam belt change, my mechanic advises changing the belt after 100k passes (2nd belt now), he uses OEM parts. I also will request the water pump and associated parts to be changed at the same before it breaks on the road. Does this also make sense?

Anything else you'd advise.

Thanks

[shtu]

I wouldn't bother with pre-emptive work like that if it's otherwise working fine.

On cambelt changes, dealers and garages sometimes ignore the advice from VAG themselves, mentioned here, https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[Sardonicus]

Personally I would do the cambelt kit and WP sooner rather than later the electric shield/shutter on the WP can fail prematurely causing random over heating or worse I would use the INA CB kit that does away with the troublesome electrics on the WP (slightly longer warm-ups) but worth it long term , I have witnessed 3 of these failures due to a sticking/faulty shutter on the WP on VAG cars

Edited by Sardonicus on Friday 14th August 11:32

[Sheepshanks]

Re the belt change - it does seem to be still regarded as worth doing on the diesels (and change the water pump too, as it's there).

[normalbloke]

Does your diesel have a ‘wet belt’ running the oil pump?
Have you got the VAG DPF app?
Do you know the difference between soot and oil ash residue with regards to your DPF.

[shtu]

Sheepshanks said:

Re the belt change - it does seem to be still regarded as worth doing on the diesels (and change the water pump too, as it's there).

Largely, that's forumites parroting what they have read on a forum or been told by their dealer.

European cars were -never- subject to this "5 years / 50k miles" stuff, that is purely dealer revenue-generation in the UK. (if you back far enough in time, yes, I'm talking about moderately-current)

Go on ELSAwin, check the engine code, follow the advice. Change it sooner if you wish, but VAG UK (finally) aligned the intervals to the rest of Europe a few years back, even compensating some owners who had the work done just before the UK advice changed.

[Sheepshanks]

shtu said:

Largely, that's forumites parroting what they have read on a forum or been told by their dealer.

The forum part is true - I used to look at Tiguan forums as wife had one and there’s certainly been a few shredded belts on EA288 diesels. The thing is, they seemed to be happening at 4yrs old, so even a 5yr interval wouldn’t have saved them.

Mileage hasn’t been an issue for a long time - VW and its dealers just said 5yrs.