Pics of belts at 103,500 miles and 9 years

rcnaylor

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2006
Location
Amarillo, TX
TDI
2014 Jetta Sportswagen Silver
FWIW, I thought I'd follow up my posts about my belt change with pics. The serpentine belt clearly looks used, but, to casual observation, the timing belt doesn't look all that bad. Of course, I know it can fail without observeable cracking, etc. And, trained eyes might see problems I don't.

Thought some might find them interesting.




 

jettawreck

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 2, 2004
Location
Northern Minnesota-55744
TDI
2001 Jetta and 2003 Jetta
Been covered many times, but the belt visual condition doesn't mean much because often it doesn't fail/break on its own. The tensioner fails, or a bearing in one of the idlers, or the WP siezes. Did you examine all of those? Or can you predict how far they will continue to serve up until they fail?
No. That's why there is a 80-100K mile change interval.
 

montyypythonss

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 8, 2007
Location
illinois
TDI
2002 jetta
I just changed my belts,rollers,water pump,serpentine tensioner, i have to change mine every two years due to mileage. belts looked great but the lower small idle roller was near failure. I turned it by hand after removing and you could feel and hear it squeaking. This probably would have caused a belt failure very soon.
 

AndyBees

Top Post Dawg
Joined
May 27, 2003
Location
Southeast Kentucky
TDI
Silver 2003 Jetta TDI, Silver 2000 Jetta TDI (sold), '84 Vanagon with '02 ALH engine
I put 167k miles on the original tensioner, rollers and water pump ......all seemed to be okay. But, I've seen them on cars that I did TB jobs that were all but shot with less than 100k miles on them.

I've told this one a time or two. I changed the TB on an '03 a couple of years ago that had almost 120k miles on the original stuff ......all looked and felt fine (serp belt looked cracked like the one in the pic).

Stick to the change interval with all items in the TB path and there should be no worries (do it any where from 95k to 105k, some would say 90k to 100k). I think my last TB job was just a little over 98k miles ....opportunity was the determining factor.
 

jettawreck

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 2, 2004
Location
Northern Minnesota-55744
TDI
2001 Jetta and 2003 Jetta
I put 167k miles on the original tensioner, rollers and water pump ......all seemed to be okay. But, I've seen them on cars that I did TB jobs that were all but shot with less than 100k miles on them.

I've told this one a time or two. I changed the TB on an '03 a couple of years ago that had almost 120k miles on the original stuff ......all looked and felt fine (serp belt looked cracked like the one in the pic).

Stick to the change interval with all items in the TB path and there should be no worries (do it any where from 95k to 105k, some would say 90k to 100k). I think my last TB job was just a little over 98k miles ....opportunity was the determining factor.

Opportunity is an important consideration, wheather you are doing it yourself or having one of the trusted shops/guru do it. Some of the guys stay booked ahead a long time and if doing your own you want to figure out a time that fits your needs/schedule. If you need to borrow/rent TB tools that needs consideration also.
165K miles were on the original TB when I bought the '03. Tensioner had let go and shredded the belt for the prior no maintainance owner(s). That's double the original interval.
 
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