advice on repairs

[miro1118]

On monday I am bringing in my 96 2.0 to the mechanic. He said that he would look at the timing belt for me. I picked her up used with like 83000 miles and now she has like 93000 miles on her I do not know if the belt was ever changed.

Question 1 is: Is this an interference engine where I would have a problem if the belt snaps?

2) Is there any other preventative maintenence that he should do while he is changing the belt. (He mentioned water pump)

He is switching out my o2 sensors and fixing that oil leak that looks like its coming from the valve cover area.

I kinda trust this guy since I used to work for him, but is there anything else I need to watch out for while he is looking at this stuff.

I hope I dont have to go 4 a bundle here.

[boschmann]

1) Officially it is an interference engine. Sometimes if it breaks at a stop light you can survive, but it's not worth taking a chance. It's easy enoughto pop off the upper belt cover & look at it, if it's not a VW belt it's been changed.

2) With 93K if you have to do a belt then go ahead & replace the cam, crank, & intermediate shaft seals, water pump & tensioner. Usually they can make it to 120K for the second belt change, but now it wouldn't need another belt until 153K & one of them will probably go bad by then.

[miro1118]

Bosch, Does that mean that the dealer doens't use a VW belt? They use aftermarket as well?

[boschmann]

No, but if it is an aftermarket belt (a fairly good posibility) then you know it was changed & can avoid doing it until about 120K. If it's a VW belt then the you'll have to rely on condition to tell if it's the original. It only takes about 5 minutes to pop the upper cover off & look.

[miro1118]

Thanks,

I dropped her off this morning. Ill let you know how it goes.