My friend has a 2.0 mk6 Jetta and it’s been the most reliable car he’s ever owned. It’s only needed a timing belt and basic maintenance items and he’s had it for almost 3 years and around 100,000 km added. It’s seen multiple cross border road trips without skipping a beat, and It’ll likely outlive him
For future reference timing belts get changed at 80,000 miles. No excuses. That's 20% within oem spec.
For context i bought a 2008 passat estate with 149,000 miles on it for a 27 miles each way commute 3 years ago.
I got it and did a timing belt change straight away which was preventative and for peace of mind.
That ring of belt material on the idler *implies* an anti-skip plate was installed too tight and rubbing on the belt, but I don't see one over the crank. The DOHC engines have them in the corners of the timing guide. SOHC manual trans engines had one over the crank but auto trans had none. Never reuse an unknown mileage/history belt... And even then, if you've already got in apart, just replace it. (For what it's worth Subarus service interval is 105k miles or 105 months.)
Did you use a high quality timing belt? We had a 98 impreza 2.2 and put an aftermarket timing belt kit on it and the belt broke in 30k miles for no reason. Tensioner and pulleys were all fine.
Ich habe mal an einem Passat das Wechselintervall von 60000 km auf 170000 überzogen. Ging vollkommen problemlos und hat super gehalten.
Der Zahnriemen in unseren Golf 4 hat 21 Jahre gehalten :D
Beim Alfa auch so...Soll wohl alle 4 Jahre gewechselt werden, war über 10 Jahre drin.
After sending the car for service to change the timing belt, tensioner, and the water pump on my VW Fox 2014 (brazilian model, EA111 1.6 8V), I got this noise for the first 5min the car is on, then the motor heats up a little and its gone, no performance issues so far.
Man i had some foo change my timing belt in my subaru and the timing belt broke less than a month after the warranty ended. So I had to get it done again. Super important thing to do with interference engine though
I just did this. Most of the items Subaru said were "broken" were in fact, not broken. Some were just worn but still in good condition. They also wanted to replace my timing belt, the same one THEY REPLACED LAST YEAR.
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In March 2026 on PartReview, timing belt OEM Volkswagen were overall better than OEM Subaru.
In March 2026 on PartReview, timing belt OEM Volkswagen were overall more popular than OEM Subaru.
By vote balance, timing belt OEM Volkswagen surpassed OEM Subaru:
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In March 2026, according to PartReview, timing belt OEM Volkswagen led more car-specific ratings than OEM Subaru:
OEM Volkswagen are chosen by owners of cars such as: Volkswagen Golf, Volkswagen Jetta, and others.
OEM Subaru are chosen by owners of cars such as: Subaru Impreza, and others.
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