Cam belt change - £789 on a VW Polo!

[ultrabelse]

I appreciate this is off topic (albeit still within the VW group)

I just got quoted £789 for a cam belt change on our 2018 VW Polo! This is from a VW dealer (we have a service plan with them that doesn’t include this as an additional item) Apparently this is required every five years.

I haven’t seen this on any of our Porsche services so far or on our previous VW Tiguan but this and my previous Macan was a diesel - do they not have cam belts?

Is it included in the major Porsche service for petrol engines - perhaps that why they are so expensive! If they cost this much on a polo, I dread to think how much the OPC’s will charge.

[TheTraveller]

The Macan has a timing chain, instead of the belt. It should last a lot longer. The only thing noticeable with chains, is that they can become noisier as they age.
You may see no service schedule, as per normal for a cam belt, as there isn't one. Not on the V configuration engines, at any case.

[On-Track]

I believe that all engines used in the Macan have timing chains not belts.

[MikeM]

commonly @ultrabelse belt changes recommended 5/7 years and 70k miles whichever comes first. If your light on mileage just hold back and shop around when your ready as that price is OTT.

[AllanG]

I appreciate this is off topic (albeit still within the VW group)

I just got quoted £789 for a cam belt change on our 2018 VW Polo! This is from a VW dealer (we have a service plan with them that doesn’t include this as an additional item) Apparently this is required every five years.

I haven’t seen this on any of our Porsche services so far or on our previous VW Tiguan but this and my previous Macan was a diesel - do they not have cam belts?

Is it included in the major Porsche service for petrol engines - perhaps that why they are so expensive! If they cost this much on a polo, I dread to think how much the OPC’s will charge.

That seems expensive for the cam belt change on your Polo, as I was quoted £439.59 inc VAT for the same job at my local VW dealer in May last year

[boreas7]

I believe that fibre/rubber cambelts have a design life of 8 to 10 years or 80 to 100k miles whichever comes first. There are a number of manufacturers recently and particularily on turbo engines, that seem to have had belt quality issues, probably the same belt supplier. A lot of cars share the same, or similar engine and the problem seems fairly widespread.
Your quote however is typical of a main dealer and is just too expensive, seek a better price.
Have it done though, whilst the failure rate is low, possibly less than 10%, a failure is catastrophic to the engine.

[New User]

Quoted £699 on my 2018 Polo for this.

I also have a BMW X3 and the belt drives the accessories rather than cylinder head so less critical but £308 incl VAT to include the replacement of the tensioner from a BMW Dealer.

£789 for the Polo is outrageous

[Nuclear Nick]

£493 for our Yeti 2.0 tdi last year at local independent. Cam belt kit includes tensioner and water pump. VW recommend 4 yearly or 40k miles for this engine.

[ultrabelse]

Thanks everyone. Great information and advice as always on this forum

I got the original VW dealer from £789 down to £669 and called around to benchmark -

3 other VW dealers wanted £789 - £1050 (!)
3 independents were £500 - £700

So I was fine to pay the modest premium and get it done with the service and MOT at the original VW dealer

I’m based in SW London / Surrey so am sure there’s a London premium in those prices too