Sd4 2012 HSE Auto now coming up to 90K miles. Seen the original advice that cambelt change due at 150k but have read that has been revised to 7 years.

During my ownership I've put on 60k in nearly four years, of which half of that has been motorway cruising to Spain doing 75mph at 1800 revs. So my thinking is that although the odometer shows 90k, this has been very easy load on the engine.

Does this mean that I could chance extending the cambelt change to say 120k, or approx. 9 years?

And secondly, has anyone actually experienced a cambelt failure?

Do you plan to keep it for more than another 7 years? You could chance it but why sweat it out for the next 30,000 miles? Have it done now and rest easy for the next 7 years!

A cambelt failure will be catastrophic if it goes and it’s not just the belt you need to worry about - failure of the water pump, tensioner or jockey pulleys are quite common too and these are all items that should be changed at the same time as the belt. Past: FL2 TD4 HSE Auto
Evoque SD4 Dynamic Lux Auto
Present: Audi A3 S Line.

I had mine done in 2017, the car was exactly 10 years old and had at that time 156,000 miles on the clock, previous owner did long trips almost daily, Ripon to Southampton I believe.

Belt was not in a terrible state when it came off either  2017 SEAT Ateca 4drive 2.0 xcellence (May 2022 -
2007 HSE with HST bodykit in Zermatt Silver 169,700 miles (dec 2016 - May 2022 )
2007 Honda Civic Type S GT (2012-2017)
2002 Mini Cooper S (2008-2012)
1992 Honda Legend 3.2i (2003-2008)
1990 Honda Concerto (1999-2003)
1985 Honda Accord (1997-1999)
1983 Honda Accord (1993-1997)
1983 Mini Mayfair (1988-1993)
1974 Mini 1000 (1979-1986)

Just did mine at 85,000 miles . I look on it as preventative maintenance. Peace of mind..............If it goes that's the engine gone up the spout.

I bought my 2012 Freelander just over 2 years ago with high mileage. It had done 132,000mls at just over 4 years old. I did the belt, water pump, auxilary belt and tensioner as soon as I got it. The old belt when removed still looked like new and would have been good for many more miles. However my wife bought a 2012 Nissan Juke about the same time with only 36,000 miles on it and had the belt snap a few hundred miles later. Seems that there was a problem with misaligned fuel pumps on certain vehicles that caused the belt to wear prematurely. not the end of the world however as it was sorted for a couple of hundred pounds in parts and a few hours of my time.

It is not usually the belt that goes, it is usually the water pump or jockey wheel that dies and that causes the belt to let go. MY13 HSE Lux Santorini Black
MY11 HSE Santorini Black Gone
MY08 SE Blue, Gone
Alfa Romeo GT Gone
Alfa Romeo 156 Space wagon Gone
Volvo V40 Gone
Volvo 480ES Gone
VW Sirocco GTX Gone

Just done mine at 9 years and 74,000 - All parts looked perfect apart from the cambelt and aux belt where the writing had worn off a bit. No lateral movement or roughness in the water pump or cambelt idler bearings. FL2 HSE Auto Galway Green
Evoque SD4 Auto Blue.
FL1 HSE TD4 Manual Black - Gone.
RR Classic V8 EFI - Gone

When mine was done at 65k but nearly 10 years old the belt was absolutely fine, however he had done one before mine but with a few more miles on it and it was not good. Why risk it get it done then you have no worries.

Cambelts and FEAD belts are very tough cookies, we used to test them not only for life durability but also for ingress of foreign objects, picture test engineers cowering next to a screaming dyno mounted engine throwing small stones and even nuts at the rotating parts!

I lost count of the number of times I filmed of prototype testing with vehicles traversing loose gravel tracks with the belt covers removed..........just in case, rarely had a failure. Most failures were down to manufacturing faults, usually a miss cut belt edge. Regards

David

Lovely i6 has now gone, but not me......

Please let me know if anything in my post offends you, as I may wish to offend you again......

Paul4751 wrote:

Sd4 2012 HSE Auto now coming up to 90K miles. Seen the original advice that cambelt change due at 150k but have read that has been revised to 7 years.

During my ownership I've put on 60k in nearly four years, of which half of that has been motorway cruising to Spain doing 75mph at 1800 revs. So my thinking is that although the odometer shows 90k, this has been very easy load on the engine.

Does this mean that I could chance extending the cambelt change to say 120k, or approx. 9 years?

And secondly, has anyone actually experienced a cambelt failure?

All the higher output 2.2 engines were reduced to 7yr/112k

OK, need advice on this one, 2012 Fl2 SD with 55000 miles on the clock, so needs a cambelt this year, do I change the idler and water pump as it is unlikely to do more than 15000 miles before I sell it in 2 1/2 years time? I won't be returning it to the UK. it's worth far more out here than in the UK. my PC is slightly to the right of Genghis
2012 HSE SD4 In Orkney Grey now gone, best car ever.

Simple answer is yes - these parts are more likely to fail than the belt its self. MY13 HSE Lux Santorini Black
MY11 HSE Santorini Black Gone
MY08 SE Blue, Gone
Alfa Romeo GT Gone
Alfa Romeo 156 Space wagon Gone
Volvo V40 Gone
Volvo 480ES Gone
VW Sirocco GTX Gone

Might as well, if the pump fails at 14,000 miles further on just before you sell it?

Anyhoo, nice to be able to tell the purchaser the belt, idler and pump were all replaced, means it has been looked after properly. Regards

David

Lovely i6 has now gone, but not me......

Please let me know if anything in my post offends you, as I may wish to offend you again......

Thanx to all the replies; will post again if/when the belt gets changed.