discontinued parts - where from? 10 year agreement?

[wrobstar21]

Hi all,

i need to get an obscure discontinued part for my 16v with air con. the dealership said that not many 16v's with air con were made which sounds like rubbish 2 me but there u go....

Its just the bloody tensioner roller for the ribbed belt but i cant find one anywhere? Its ridiculous!!!

isnt there some kind of thing that says european car manufacturers have to make parts fo 10 years after a vehicle is discontinued.

Any specialist breakers etc anyones used??

[Wayne]

Hi all,

i need to get an obscure discontinued part for my 16v with air con. the dealership said that not many 16v's with air con were made which sounds like rubbish 2 me but there u go....

Its just the bloody tensioner roller for the ribbed belt but i cant find one anywhere? Its ridiculous!!!

isnt there some kind of thing that says european car manufacturers have to make parts fo 10 years after a vehicle is discontinued.

Any specialist breakers etc anyones used??

Yes but they stopped making the mk3 in 1998 so 12years ago.

[wrobstar21]

i know but there should be a stock of parts at least, they wouldn't run out in two years!

my local dealer searched nationwide and there were none.

[Jimp]

Which air con do you have? Is it the climatronic one with the digital readouts?

[wrobstar21]

no its the other one with a norm and max switch in the dash.

Blimey your the first person ive spoken to who knows there are two types.

Thats whats causing me all the probs, if it were the climatronic one the part i bought originally would have fit!!

[zdebx]

Try looking for people, who break their 16v on eBay or here in the classifieds.

And it might be the same part on other mk3's with aircon?

[Wayne]

i know but there should be a stock of parts at least, they wouldn't run out in two years!

my local dealer searched nationwide and there were none.

Think about how many parts are in a mk3 plus all the differences and changes through the years can you think how big the warehouse would need to be to store all the parts.

At the end of the day with searching you should find one s/h, if not and if the air con is not working then why not switch back to a older set up.

[wrobstar21]

i do know what your sayin but a tensioner/pulley is a part that will eventually wear out, hence the availability of all kinds of tensioners for the 8v and non air con 16v. I would have no probs fixin it if that were the case!

It seems its because mine has the older manual air con and not the climatronic one!

Anyway, i got a local engineers to replace the bearing inside it, he says it shouldn't be a problem so fingers crossed!!

 

[MotorPsycho]

three types of aircon I think;

climatronic
older models with max and min buttons
'96 onwards with 'AC' and recirculate buttons, temp adjusted on the normal dial

would imagine the idler would be the same on them all, if you find anything post back because I think my valver could do with a new one before too long

[wrobstar21]

Mate, ive had i right nightmare with this part.

It seems that the only different tensioner is for the old style air con with the max and min buttons. All the others are readily available from any parts place.

The one thats availalable is a composite plastic material whereas the one i need is all metal with a completely different fixing and tensioning method.

Went to my local dealer (last resort) and they searched nationwide for one, but as the part was discontinued and not many valvers were made with the older air con apparently), they couldn't find one.

So my options were to wait until i could find a breaker 16v with my type of part on it or to go to a local engineering firm and try and get em to replace the bearing inside the metal pulley.

Should find out today if he's managed it and will let you know.

It did piss me off a bit though how hard such a simple part has been to find (i didn't find one). Im sure i would eventually but i cant afford to have my golf off the road for that long. Would be good to find out how many were made with my spec as its a bit off to produce a part/set-up that you cant fix.

still should find out today!