Loose cambelt

goldspanners

ilikedrawing wrote: »

I think this might be a new VW weakness.

yes the pulleys dont last much over thier service life and must be changed when the belt is changed.
had another one go last week,again pulley collapsed and belt came right through timing cover,theres a good chance this one will require the head taken off though.

ilikedrawing

Ok the bolt was well and truly stuck in there, in had to go to an specialist engine place where the guy had a special drill. He also tried to get it out with one of his super strong tools (i only caught half the tale btw) and it snapped it because it was so stuck.

Anyway, they fit a VW cambelt kit with tensioners and everything and the car has no engine damage. Phew!

Still cost £400 though, eek! Could have been worse though.

goldspanners

ilikedrawing wrote: »

Ok the bolt was well and truly stuck in there, in had to go to an specialist engine place where the guy had a special drill. He also tried to get it out with one of his super strong tools (i only caught half the tale btw) and it snapped it because it was so stuck.

Anyway, they fit a VW cambelt kit with tensioners and everything and the car has no engine damage. Phew!

Still cost £400 though, eek! Could have been worse though.

good to hear that,that isnt too bad a price considering the amout of blood sweat and tears that went into removing the bolt without damaging anything else.

TiTheRev

Indeed, glad it is sorted and you can carry on driving £400 isn't so bad considering the cars value.

VW do change tensioners as a default with every cambelt, not because they are an issue, but it just covers potential wear in the bearing and stops bolts seizing the tensioner is only an extra £15/20 and no extra labour as the techie's already there doing the belt!

ilikedrawing

Our mechanic said he thinks the wrong bolt may have been used when the cambelt was done. The one he got from VW is shorter than the one that got stuck, he thinks the bolt was overly tightened in order to get the bolt in and show no thread i guess.

But if the engine had of been damaged we'd have been looking at a £1000 upwards bill it reckon. So i think we should be thankful!

hewhoisnotintheknow

TiTheRev wrote: »

£400 isn't so bad considering the cars value.

is that the excuse you main dealers are using now

TiTheRev

hewhoisnotintheknow wrote: »

is that the excuse you main dealers are using now

It's the reasoning I am using and if the car were older and less valuable (Golf TDi's hold there money very well!), then it would be less worthwhile doing. £400 will mean the OP can ask slightly more for the car as the cambelt has now been done and will save a future owner a big bill.

ilikedrawing

The parts were £130 and the labour was £300 because of the seized bolt. And thats my local cheap garage. So im pretty annoyed at whoever did the cambelt last.

TiTheRev

Parts at £130 is actually a bit steep. A genuine cambelt kit with the belt, tensioner and roller plus bolts etc retails at around £100 inc vat, let alone what the garage paid for it. Did they do the water pump while there, or any other job to warrent the other £30?

hewhoisnotintheknow

ilikedrawing wrote: »

The parts were £130 and the labour was £300 because of the seized bolt. And thats my local cheap garage. So im pretty annoyed at whoever did the cambelt last.

is there anyway to find out who did it last time