bd0nalds0n

I think preventative maintenance to help guard against camshaft failure would be to inspect the spider hubs behind the cam gears, perhaps as often as each timing belt tension/inspection, but certainly no less frequently than at each timing belt replacement.

I believe many cam failures have been due to cracked hubs that allow the gear to wobble, stressing the cams until they fail. Mine was.

Pic below, courtesy of PorKen. Part #928 105 459 00 is the potential offender.

heinrich

never marry

heinrich

AKA Shane

heinrich

fewer horses too

hacker-pschorr

Not mine

Mongo

Sharktoberfest fun runs in the canyons...

Vilhuer

Flat side to side spring in '85-95 manual gearbox can result total destruction of the box when it breaks, and it will break sooner or later.

Reverse gear lockout spring in '82-95 manual gearbox can result serious damage to gearbox internals when it breaks, and it will break sooner or later.

Luckily in most cases both of these will not result major problems. Only hair loss to owners who try to figure out what that piece of metal in oil drain plug magnet is.

atb

H, I thought for sure you'd post about covering the hot leads on the dome lights, or replacing the units with the VW part.

bd0nalds0n

OOh, I like that idea. Then you have an on/off switch, right, not the stupid "rock the lens back and forth" idiocy.

heinrich

Adam I've had so many catastrophic failures, I had forgotten about that one but yes. Here are the ones I recall having:

water pump failure (tbelt was the part that saved the engine despite the crap pump)
tensioner/belt rollers/arms/timing gears etc failures
radiator end tanks oil/coolant mix (MANY of these)
radiator hoses
euro distributor silly sync belt
oil cooler hoses rupture
heater valve silly hose rupture
thermostat failure
plug/coil wire failure
MAF failure
85 airbox explosion/hood dent from leaky injectors
crank case vent oil ingestion
car fire from rear dome light which has all electrodes exposed and fits into the body (metal)
thrust bearing failure leading to engine destruction
tie rod failure leading to car playing frogger across lanes unpredictably (try this and pee your pants)
steering rack pissing failure
cat fire from bad ignition
water in intake leading to bad ignition leading to fire


I'm sure I've forgotten many ...

heinrich

Oh yes, shock failure leading to front fender damage

heinrich

Godzilla has the VW part, all over. It is well insulated and much better quality.

scott863

Heinrich, can you please explain the rear dome failure.

heinrich

well, in the rear roof is a light. you insert that light and sometimes it will short out. if you're unlucky it will melt the fuse and then ... fire

the flyin' scotsman

This list would make you think twice re. ownership but we know this is over many many years and quite a few cars..........right?