Dan Curnow wrote:

I have a Mk3 1.8GL (petrol) and I know that VW recommend changing the
cambelt on this engine every 60,000k; however, the Haynes manual suggests
every 40,000k is more appropriate. I've got just over 30,000k out of my

Funny, I have the original VW manual for this engine and there is no
mention of any specific change interval. Just something like "check the
belt at every inspection and replace if needed".
In my opinion, the "safe" interval would be about 120k kms or ~80k
miles. Its nothing special, as even old 5cylinder VW engines with cam
belt driven water pump had the similar change intervals and reached
them without any problems. I changed the belt on my Vento 1.8GT at
~130k kms and it still was in a very good condition.

The whole hysteria about cam belts came from TDI's which apparently are
very hard on the belts and really require the intervals you mentioned
(90k kms/60k miles initially, for some models lowered to 60k kms/40k
miles afterwards).

current cambelt so shall change it this year at some point. Better safe
than sorry and all that! Yeah, loads of stop/start journeys are likely to

Very true.