Magnet

Hello, Any good reason why you are replying to a predominance of over 1 year old threads - generally with similar posts? Later:- Can now see your posts have been marked as spam. Fine. Liverpool location - German e-mail address!

Are you intending to return to answer the question Charles?

Taken off someone else’s pre purchase vehicle??

Welcome Glyn and thanks for joining. There have been quite a number of posts on this subject over the last couple of years. As you will realise once you have read them, VAG have changed their recommendation on belt change intervals and removed the ‘………or every 5 years, whichever comes first’. This leaves the owner to decide whether they now follow VAG’s current advice of no time limit, and run the risk of catastrophic ( economical write off potential) failure, or spend and buy into peace of mind and get the belt assembly changed every 5 years. Please bear in mind that low annual mileages usually result in additional stress on belts, due to the number of stop/starts and gear/rev changes. In effect David, the decision will ultimately rest with you. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Charles, Is S. Wales a typo for S.West? - due to your location being Cornwall. Kind regards, Gareth.

Where have you tried so far Alexander - to save us suggesting where you might have already tried?

I’m very much in agreement with Cliff’s sound advice. Your first and zero cost action is to get the battery efficiency checked - Halfords stores will do that. Ask them to also check the alternator output at the same time. Please let us know how you get on Lee. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Oli, Welcome and thanks for joining. To your last point first :- it really doesn’t matter if anyone else has had a similar issue - you have, and it’s a potentially dangerous fault which the dealer has failed to resolve. As I see it, you now need to take legal advice on how to proceed to reject this unsafe car. CAB should be able to help you. If there is any element of finance involved in the purchase/part purchase, then you would need to inform them too. Please keep us posted on how you get on. Kind regards, Gareth.

Welcome Dave and thanks for joining. The suffix letter G will denote the modifications made to the basic part numbe over the years. If G isn’t available, then you need to do your homework on what other letter variants are like compared with yours. You may find another letter variant that you can modify on a ‘cut and shut’ basis Can we take it you have searched EBay international as well as EBay U.K? Kind regards Gareth.

Welcome Daniel, Try registering your ‘want’ with on-line breaker link websites such as Partsfinder - there are more. Please let us know how you get on. Kind regards, Gareth.

That’s Kev. Try on-line breaker link websites, such as Partsfinder - there are more. Perhaps you could let us know how you get on. Kind regards, Gareth.

Thanks Steve, I think that’s very sound advice, but I would add a very important (to me anyway) caveat, and that would be ‘if you know your way around cars’. To me, buying cars direct from a private seller is great, because I feel relatively confident that I can assess its overall condition. If I wasn’t confident ( as I guess a high % of buyers won’t be) then I would only go down that route if I had a professional inspection carried out before committing. Perhaps we can take Steve Q’s recent unfortunate experience in buying from a car supermarket - the plus side has been that despite finding that the car needed work, that work was carried out at no cost to himself - as would have been the case if he had bought the same car direct from its last owner. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Kev, Where have you searched so far - to avoid us suggesting where you have already tried? Kind regards, Gareth.

Any new thoughts Dave?

Thank you for coming back on this Wayne. As a matter of interest, what brand of battery was fitted last time? OK, entrusting replacement batteries to your local garage is one way, and you usually get the best deal to them via. their motorfactors suppliers - which might not be the best value for money for you, but…. Just let us know what your Halfords battery check reveals, and what brand you currently have, and we will take it one step at a time if it tests substandard. Kind regards, Gareth.