Have a friend with a 2002 VW Cabrio with 70,000 miles. Is it a "Contact Engine" that a belt break, could mess up the engine? When should the timing belt be changed, mileage? Thanks

 

Apparently there is little or no chance of getting an answer to a question on this site. Sorry to say.

 

Hey. I just joined this site as my daughter recently bought a 2002 Cabrio and I have some maintenance questions as well. Hope I came to the right place!

At any rate, her car has 102K miles, and the first thing I thought of was the timing belt. We had it changed this weekend, including the water pump and new coolant, for $380. This is a non interference engine, I believe, so a failure of the belt is not a complete catastrophe. Not sure what the official recommendation is, but I would say that a well maintained car should be good for 100K miles.

DRW

 

$380 for a new belt etc. Did you buy a kit? Was the job done in a Dealership? Hope you are right about "non interference engine". Thanks for a response.

 

Well you don't say which engine it has but at appears that all engines fitted to a 2002 Cabrio

Timing belt - Renew Every 48 months regardless of miles/km.

CAUTION: This engine has been identified as an INTERFERENCE engine in which the possibility of valve-to-piston damage in the event of a timing belt failure is MOST LIKELY to occur. A compression check of all cylinders should be performed before removing the cylinder head.

 

The engine is the 2L. We had the work done at the local Goodyear; they provided the parts and labor.

DRW

 

Keith, from the looks of it, that "Caution" was printed somewhere, can you say if it is in the manual or whatever? Thanks

 

That caution was taken from Autodata and Autodata don't list an AL engine code for the Cabrio.

ETKA says AL - 1.6 - 48hp - 03\73-12\78 - MOD.181