Cam belt tensioner stud

[VW Chris]

Hi all bought a lovely B6 passat estate 2.0Tdi 2006 around 8 months ago really well looked after car with full main dealer service history guy got it serviced every year etc. The cambelt was changed back in 2014 20k miles ago, so long story short i was driving along the dual carriageway at 70 mph all of a sudden car has like a hiccup and loss of all power i manage to coast into a lay by and try to start it up and it sounds horrible, i call out the AA and guy diagnoses cambelt as the problem and i get it towed to a garage where they give me a quote for repair at worse way £3000 best case still looking at £2000 i only payed £3k for the car. They diagnosed the problem as the tensioner stud failing it hadn't snapped just simply the thread had worn away and it just came away, ive since read about this being some what of a known problem. Ive chased up the main dealer that replaced the cambelt and even though its just out of warranty they have said if i can get the car there and they diagnose the same fault they will give me a good will gesture towards repair as the car has always been serviced there etc. Does anyone know if i have a strong case for them paying for all the work as surely the tensioner stud shouldn't be failing that soon after having the cambelt changed or what would be the point of having it done and how much is the repair likely to cost as the quotes from the garage i got recovered too were made without them even removing the head so im not sure how they can see how much damage has been done.

Sorry for the long post

Cheers

[RichardSEL]

The two to three grand quotes would be ball park estimates, not quotations which as you say couldn't be issued until detailed examination of the damage. Would assume those figures would be for head removal, valve change, etc.

Tensioner isn't in the VW cambelt kit of parts to be changed out AFAIK. I'm '06MY too and due my second cambelt / waterpump change next spring but even the very full kit I bought from the USA (Blauparts) didn't have one in. But did have things such as top and bottom end crank oil seals

So the tensioner going can't be attributable to the dealer who changed cambelt 20k miles ago. It's just a component that's failed which we all run the risk of -- I'm no friend of that lot so would say if I thought dealer could be held responsible

BTW, I've also got a Jaguar XJ8 (3.2L) that had a history of failing plastic head tensioners due to well documented design fault. But there was never any recall. Just two so called "stage improvements" to the plastic head until it was replaced without any announcement by an all metal one. (indie replacement charge that I'm gonna have done £521.12 +VAT)

The early VW TSI engines had tensioner faults too -- they were subject to recall in the US/Canada but not over here.

Keep us updated on your dealer's results and progress? There's an indie I trust in Dunton Green just outside Sevenoaks you might ask when you get your dealer quote -- johnbowlesvw.co.uk

[DMitch16]

Wasn't the A24 per chance? Light blue 2007 estate suffered the same fate last week at the same time as my mates 2010 ground to a halt because he'd put petrol in his Tdi !!

[VW Chris]

Nah it was on the A10 proper gutted still.. ive got a friend looking at it tomorrow for me so will post here once i find out what the damage is in case it happens to someone else and they are interested, expecting it to be quite bad though! Maybe ill get lucky. Cant really afford to be putting 3k into a car i only payed 3k for, how was your mates after he miss fueled?

[DMitch16]

Mate's is fine now - his pocket took a beating though just shy of 200 notes! Not to mention the 40 quid of petrol that was drained out that will get no use.

The other guy might not be so lucky but he did not hear any nasty noises. If he is very, very lucky and his belt didn't jump some teeth the timing would have been maintained and no engine interference would have occured. Yet another PD TDI Passat tensioner bolt failure though!

[VW Chris]

Mechanic had a look at it yesterday he reckons my best bet it to pick up and second hand head but i need to know does the engine code matter for the head mine is BKP could i for instance stick a BKD on there? as long as there both 140bhp.

[Crasher]

The bare head casting is the same as a BKD/AZV but an exchange unit is a different part number due to some tiny included parts differences BUT the injectors are different and must be swapped over.