Help for a friend in need...

[Bob Fossil]

A friend has had the cambelt snap on his 05, 55k miles (FSH, though not dealer from 2009 onwards) VW Golf 2.0 FSI GT. It's been towed to a garage, who've told him it needs a new engine, the bill for which will be £4k.

He's considering his options, so thought the good folk of PH may be able to offer some sage advice. IMO, his options are:

1. Pay up, and put it down to experience
2. Get a second opinion - he doesn't have a way to move the car though
2. Try to take it up with VW customer services, see whether any recompense is forthcoming
3. Sell car as a non-runner, move on.

If he decides to sell it as a non-runner, what would be the best route and what price could he expect?

Cheers

BF

[oOTomOo]

Supposed to change VW cambelts at 60k / 4 years iirc - so I suspect VW will tell him to stick it.

Chances are the pistons have hit the valves and bent them all to buggery, I would have thought replacing valves / possibly pistons would be cheaper than a new engine - might be worth a second opinion.

T

[nonuts]

Unless he has a main dealer service history I'd doubt he'd got any hope of help from VW. My Audi did have a full service history and shat itself at 63k and they still weren't interested.

Had it had the cambelt replaced? As I'm pretty sure it would have been due one at 5 years old?

[300bhp/ton]

A 2nd hand engine would seem like a better bet IMO. Spending £4k on a stock engine for a 5 year old Golf is madness though.