I inherited my grandmother’99 VW Passat (V6) nine months ago. She was the only owner and the car came from Germany. When I had it serviced at my local VW mechanic (Kombi Haus) here in Sacramento they suggested I look through the car’s records and see if the timing belt had ever been replaced. They said on a 10 year old car that doesn’t have a ton of miles (67,000) it could go out at any time. When should I get it replaced and how concerned should I be about it?
When a timing belt snaps it will cause $2000-$3000 of damage to your engine and a breakdown whether it chooses to snap. So the concern is up to you.
I believe the interval is 8yr/105k miles whichever FIRST.
You should replace it when the owner’s manual says to replace it. It’s not complicated.
If you don’t replace it, you’re risking an inconvenient breakdown if this is a non-interference engine and costly engine damage if this is an interference engine. Someone will be along shortly to tell you which one you have.
Here I am, according to Gates this engine is indeed an interference engine. So get it changed ASAP!
Agree; it’s an iterference engine and these belts (on older Passats) have been known to snap BEFORE 60,000 miles. I would get it replaced YESTERDAY!
It is actually the older 1.8T that is known to snap belts early due to a faulty tensioner design. A friend with 1.8T Audi and another with 1.8T suffered this fate, fortunately under warranty. The v6 is okay with this respect.