MKIII Golf GTi - 11 years old what needs changing before it breaks?

[Kev2904]

Hi guys i bought an 11 year old golf gti 8v mk3 in september last year she now has 131k on her, now the last guy had her serviced once at VW and once by himself and she has now done 3k since i had her, he said it had just been serviced.

He did say it will more than likly need a new timing belt and possibly a clutch at the next service he even gave me a new clutch assembly with the car! but at the moment everything seems ok.

The whole point of my ramble is.

My car is a fair age for a petrol what should i look at getting changed purely from a prevention rather than cure point of view, i had her in to get the gearbox and clutch checked the garage told me they seem fine but they didnt visually check those parts.

I am tempted to put her in for a full service once i get my other little problems sorted but i would rather get her in get serviced and get whatever needs changed, changed before it casues problems.

any advice or anyone got a golf this old what have you changed and if you dont mind telling me how much did it cost you?

thanks all

Kev

[Niall76]

Ace little car.

My reccdomendation would be to do the timing belt anyway. It's about £18 for a genuine belt as I remember. While you're doing that you may as well pull out the water pump, clean it up and get a new O ring for it to go back on. As you're doing that you may as well also flush out the cooling system and refill with new. As for the gearbox and clutch, they're far too much hassle to check and as the saying goes - if it aint broke don't fix it.

Only other thing I would do is check with VW to make sure it's been in for any recalls. I had an 84 mkII which was called in, in 2001. They're pretty good that way (and it's done free of charge).

Other than that, drive it and enjoy it.