Owner reviews for timing belt

I changed the belt on my "97 at 10 years and 60k, the old belt looked like it had lots of life left.

My NA had ~90,000 miles on the original almost 25 year old belt when I bought it. We actually did a couple of autocrosses and my girlfriend drove it on her 100 mile commute for a few weeks before we got all the parts and tools and time to do the job. The belt didn't even look like it was going to break any time soon. It was definitely overdue for changings, but it wasn't cracking or mission teeth.

Gates T306rb for 16v aba or abf

There is no way to know without removing the cylinder head and posting pictures. Best case you can just replace the timing belt and any bent valves.

Like the 944, the S2, more specifically, they're finicky on timing belts and tensioners...I know guys that change them every 10-12K miles, or every 18-24 months, and they haven't had problems.

I'm sold on the Gates Racing kevlar belts, seems like cheap insurance for $30-40 extra.

Part of the reason I run a Gates racing belt with the manual tensioner (dynamics of the belt). I'm a good 30K miles deep with this set up and the belt hasn't needed a single adjustment. I trust it just fine.

It's ezier to do AWD if the tranny is pointed towards the rear wheels than if its set crosswise in the car...so the "pro" is EZ AWD..the con...its a betch to work on the nose of the engine (timing belt, waterpump etc are much more labor intense than on a transverse VW).

So my gates racing belt snapped. This is the reason i bought gates so my t belt wouldnt break, 40 miles after valves were replaced t belt breaks. Fantastic. They have great QC. Just kidding. There had to have been a flaw, the way it broke

My original timing belt assy failed at 87,0000 miles at just over 8 years. I think it might have been the tensioner failing that actually caused it. Luckily alll I had to do was pay for the timing belt replacement and VW covered the head replacement.