Help! - Timing Belt

[caufman <caufman@geocities.com>]

Hello everyone,
I have a question from a friend who has a 1983 Rabbit GTI (yes, I know
it's not a Scirocco, but it has the 1.8 JH engine).  This is the
situation:  The car has gradually started acting funny.  The rpm's
having  varying widely while driving, very jumpy (anywhere from below to
5k at any time), making for very un-fun drive.  After this occurred for
a while, the car would not rev above 1k rpms..in neutral.  My friend
sputtered to a service facility and they told her that her timing belt
was loose and that it could go at any moment which would blow up her
engine (not exact words, but you get the idea).  Well, they said they
could give her a quick fix (didn't tell her what they did), then said to
get a new timing belt would be about $18 for the part and $90 labor.
Well, what do y'all think this might be?  Was this the correct
diagnosis? Does this sound like a fair estimate?  Also, if anyone can
give some general info on the timing belt, how it affects drive, how
easy or hard is it to adjust-change yourself, I would appreciate your
help.

Appreciatively

John
80 Scirocco S

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