timing belt tension kit

[fireman sam]

hi all, just stumbled across this forum as my (up till now) golf is causing me problems.
travelled from manchester to blackpool yesterday only to hear a new engine noise when i got to blackpool and put the window down.
got back home and took it to my local garage. the guy used to work at vw. he took off a cover off the side of the engine and removed a snapped semi circle of plastic.
he reckons i need a timing belt tension kit costing £250 to do supply and fit. does this sound right to anyone or has anyone else had similar probs?

[D Owen]

First of all welcome to the site - I have found the people here are very friendly and full of usefull information (and some less usefull!!!!!!)

Unfortunately £250 sounds about right, maybe you can find someone who can do it a little cheaper - I had mine done about 18 months ago at a cost of £180 + VAT.  Turned out i didn't need it and it was the famous MAF sensor that was busted.

Hope this helps.

[fireman sam]

thanks for reply, i didn't want to go to the stealership and pay thier prices but it sound expensive for the snapped piece of plastic he handed me! the car's making a 'whirring?!' sound when i rev the engine and he says that one of my belts will be loose and that i shouldn't really drive the car as i could throw the timing out (thats if i haven't already on the drive back)
there is no loss of power just the annoyng noise !
what is this famous fault you are refering to & could this hurt my wallet ?
 

[topher]

Dont know what the bit of snapped plastic might be without seeing it, but if it's part of the tensioner then i wouldn't be driving the car until it's fixed. If the tensioner fails the belt will go flying and you'll have valves crashing into pistons.
£250 sounds about right because vw designed the mk4 engine bay in such a way that you have to remove half of it to get to the belt/tensioner.
Make sure he puts a new belt on too, even if yours is only a few thousand miles old.. for what it costs you might aswell give yourself another 60,000 miles worry free driving. If your car has done around 60,000 anyway, get him to put a new waterpump on at the same time, the part itself is about £25 and he should fit it for free.. since he has direct access to it with the belt off.

As for the famous MAF fault (air mass meter, screwed into the side of your airfilter box with a plug into it) , if yours dies, as most do, it'll cost you £75 exchange from the dealer.

[fireman sam]

wow my wallet is never going to forgive me taking all this money out at once. i've already forked out for a set of alloys and some smoked back light last week!

my car is a 99 T Reg with 43k on the clock. art from this fault the only other thing which has been wrong with it since i got it it is the idle.
when i'm at lights etc the rev counter drops to about 600 instead of just below 1000 and also shakes a bit like it's going to stall. it sometimes sees to struggle a bit in 5th gear and i have to change down to 4th, any ideas?

[D Owen]

Im guessing but it could be the MAF on the way out ?

Mine is a 99 T Reg too but with 139k on the clock 

[topher]

Could be loads of things.. including the MAF Plugs/leads or any one of about 5 sensors could cause it.. although the MAF would be the only one that wont show up onthe vag diagnostics computer. If you have cruise control (quite rare on a '99) a blown fuse causes dodgy idle/cutout.. but not the 5th gear problems you describe.

[Sugar79]

topher your G60 looks grand 

[R32_T]

Must be worth more than a grand.... 

[GTIMKiiJODE]

I'd pay more than a grand for it, looks beautiful.