On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 7:04 PM, Sean B.<vgonman@earthlink.net> wrote:
> The biggest issue (maintainance wise) with the 1.8t motor is to make
> sure the timing belt gets changed before there is 90k miles on the
> motor. It wouldn't surprise me if quite a few of these blown motors were
> either tuned to death or the owner's didn't do the timing belt when they
> should have.

This is what I'd read too. And, since the job is somewhat involved,
I'll bet there were plenty of owners who either tried (and failed) to
do the job themselves to save money, or simply left the belt to it's
own designs. Looking at the page linked below, timing belt replacement
is certainly more complex than the ABA in my Westy.

The job as outlined on passatworld

http://www.passatworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=167704

Neil.

--
Neil Nicholson '81 VanaJetta 2.0 "Jaco"

http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/

http://groups.google.com/group/vanagons-with-vw-inline-4-cylinder-gas-engines