Long term maintenance schedule

fred · Nov 11, 2015

Looking for / to assemble a long term maintenance schedule, can anyone point me in the right direction? Or are there any stats on failure rates (not anecdotal) available?

Thinking about (preventative) maintenance for:

Cambelt/waterpump (4 yrs)
DMF (70,000 miles?)
Clutch
EGR
DPF
Turbo(s) (60,000 miles?)
...?

jts46 · Nov 11, 2015

fred,
DMF is the clutch, wait till it goes unless you want to spend £1000
Turbo i wouldn't worry about it, again wait till it goes

John

snowy55 · Nov 11, 2015

fred said:
Looking for / to assemble a long term maintenance schedule, can anyone point me in the right direction? Or are there any stats on failure rates (not anecdotal) available?

Thinking about (preventative) maintenance for:

Cambelt/waterpump (4 yrs)
DMF (70,000 miles?)
Clutch
EGR
DPF
Turbo(s) (60,000 miles?)
...?

I personally don't consider any of these items are maintenance parts. Wait until they fail. If you take it to the extreme you need to include wheel bearings, cv joints, exhaust system the list goes on and on.

sidepod · Nov 11, 2015

Turbo at 60k? WTF? Seriously?

fred · Nov 11, 2015

IDK, just looking to establish a reasonable schedule. 60k-90k for the turbo then?

It's fine to repair a broken bus if you're never more than 20 miles from home but I use mine for big missions (e.g. Morocco over xmas, Croatia last year) and I'd rather replace a major component in advance than try to have to do it roadside or have it ruin a trip. Hence the request for info!

WelshGas · Nov 11, 2015

fred said:
Looking for / to assemble a long term maintenance schedule, can anyone point me in the right direction? Or are there any stats on failure rates (not anecdotal) available?

Thinking about (preventative) maintenance for:

Cambelt/waterpump (4 yrs)
DMF (70,000 miles?)
Clutch
EGR
DPF
Turbo(s) (60,000 miles?)
...?

The only thing you should be concerned about is the Water Pump/Cambelt at 40,000 miles ALSO at 4/5 years NO MATTER what the Milage.
The Rubber Reinforced Cambelt has a finite life due to degradation of the rubber compound, so even if you only cover 5,000 miles/year you should change it. The Water Pump doesn't have to be changed until 40,000 miles but it is a small additional cost if done the same time as the Cambelt but a larger cost if done on its own.

snowy55 · Nov 11, 2015

Fred
How many miles has your Cali covered to date?

fred · Nov 11, 2015

31k.

Is there no published info / collective wisdom on MTTF for major items?

barry · Nov 12, 2015

fred said:
IDK, just looking to establish a reasonable schedule. 60k-90k for the turbo then?

It's fine to repair a broken bus if you're never more than 20 miles from home but I use mine for big missions (e.g. Morocco over xmas, Croatia last year) and I'd rather replace a major component in advance than try to have to do it roadside or have it ruin a trip. Hence the request for info!

This just has to be the sensible view, surely.
"Wait until to fails, then intervene" doesn't make any sense at all unless (as the poster above says) you just go for day trips to the seaside and to local meets.
After all, the major moving parts of the T5 van are very definitely not bullet proof ... regretfully.

Andy · Nov 29, 2015

Buy new Cali every two years before warranty runs out !!

2CV67 · Nov 30, 2015

As I reported in detail & with documentation here:
http://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/cambelt-replacement-quandry.6507/page-2#post-65639
the official VW line on cambelt replacement in France is:
- Inspection every 40,000km
- Replacement every 210,000km
- No time limit
Am I naïve in thinking that if VW have done that servicing, then any failure would be covered by VW??

WelshGas · Nov 30, 2015

If you are that confident - but do you have it in writing, by VW?

snowy55 · Nov 30, 2015

2CV67 said:
As I reported in detail & with documentation here:
http://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/cambelt-replacement-quandry.6507/page-2#post-65639
the official VW line on cambelt replacement in France is:
- Inspection every 40,000km
- Replacement every 210,000km
- No time limit
Am I naïve in thinking that if VW have done that servicing, then any failure would be covered by VW??

Very naive. There's no way Vw would pay out.
Make sure you have £5000 handy for if the belt fails and wrecks your engine.

18hunts · Nov 30, 2015

Many moons ago I was an engineering officer in the merchant navy. The company I worked for had a large fleet and they took the opportunity with one class of ships to do half with planned maintenance and the other half with 'fix when broke' to ascertain which was the best approach.
The biggest incident of breakdowns/failure was with ships on the planned maintenance schedule.

snowy55 · Nov 30, 2015

18hunts said:
Many moons ago I was an engineering officer in the merchant navy. The company I worked for had a large fleet and they took the opportunity with one class of ships to do half with planned maintenance and the other half with 'fix when broke' to ascertain which was the best approach.
The biggest incident of breakdowns/failure was with ships on the planned maintenance schedule.

If it 'aint broke don't fix it springs to mind and this a good example :thumb

2CV67 · Nov 30, 2015

WelshGas said:
If you are that confident - but do you have it in writing, by VW?

No - obviously I am not that confident.
That's why I asked the question.

The 3 pages I show in the referenced post are printouts from the VW Customer Care Supervisor's Terminal, with date, as shown at the bottom of each page.
I had asked for written confirmation & he happily printed out & gave me those sheets for that reason.
From there to getting them to fork out hard cash though...

I do understand that rubber doesn't last forever & that many manufacturers have a 5-year limit on cam-belts.
I would certainly look at things more cautiously if I was planning a trip through hostile territory.
But I also dislike waste & I find it hard (but not impossible) to imagine VW publishing an over-optimistic maintenance schedule for something so critical.
So the idea of a professional inspection every 40k & replacement at 210k (or sooner if needed after inspection) seems reasonable for my useage.

I am not trying to persuade anybody to take a risk.
But is there any factual evidence that the cam-belt on this particular engine needs changing more frequently in non-agressive conditions?

fred · Dec 1, 2015

18hunts said:
Many moons ago I was an engineering officer in the merchant navy. The company I worked for had a large fleet and they took the opportunity with one class of ships to do half with planned maintenance and the other half with 'fix when broke' to ascertain which was the best approach.
The biggest incident of breakdowns/failure was with ships on the planned maintenance schedule.

Definitely something to bear in mind if I ever sell my Cali and buy a fleet of ships.

fred · Dec 1, 2015

snowy55 said:
If it 'aint broke don't fix it springs to mind and this a good example

Right. So don't replace your cam belt

Rich20 · Dec 1, 2015

Is it worth the risk? Having suffered a cam belt failure some years ago I can tell you it is costly, inconvenient and therefore a bigger waste of money compared to getting it changed for relatively low cost. I also have experience with Audi, where on fixing a fuel pump fault they "discovered" a split in my cambelt and changed it . The split belt had only done a few thousand miles but was not an original Audi part so I had to pay. I took the cambelt manufacturer to the small claims court but they put up a very convincing case to the judge meaning that he could not rule in my favour. They had R& D data and manufacturing process evidence, stuff I just could not compete with.

2CV67 · Dec 11, 2015

I contacted VW Commercial Vehicle Customer Relations (France) & got a rapid e-mail reply confirming the cam belt & tensioner need replacing at 210,000km with no time limit.
BUT: subject to regular inspection in VW service check which may require earlier replacement.
AND: subject to any possible future change in recommendation by VW.

Now I am wondering how to ask the question about who pays if it breaks inside that limit...