shoddy chevvy garage. help!

RandyRos

mikey72 wrote: »

Ring a couple of different dealers in another part of the country tomorrow, and ask for a price to replace just the belt, see what they say to the idea. That should tell you what should have been done. What does it say on the receipt?

yes I will do that tomorrow. I have a sheet that says everything they did for the 40k service.

everything is checked as "inspected" (including the Auxillary Drive Belt, which they told me today was replaced.was it?) except for the following which were replaced;
brake & clutch fluid
pollen filter
spark plugs
camshaft belt
oil
oil filter
there is no mention on the sheet of cam pulleys or bearings, only "cambelt"

RandyRos

Stigy wrote: »

Adjuster Pulley will be the tensioner.

right, ok, thanks. its good to know what I'm talking about when complaining lol

mikey72

The belt is £10 to £20, the kit is £50 to £70, which is the belt and tensioner pulley, for a decent branded part. So double for a dealer part, maybe. It may or may not be the same, there could be a seperate adjuster pulley, or not. Check with the garage that has your car now.

edit - £100 on ebay, and an assortment of different pulleys as well, so no idea what a kit should consist of really.

RandyRos

mikey72 wrote: »

The belt is £10 to £20, the kit is £50 to £70, which is the belt and tensioner pulley, for a decent branded part. So double for a dealer part, maybe. It may or may not be the same, there could be a seperate adjuster pulley, or not. Check with the garage that has your car now.

I'm not stupid enough to believe that the belt alone cost £200, but I'm not a mechanic, hubby is always working so I have to deal with the car, I guess they thought they could take the urine a bit.

do you mean to check which brands the belt and tensioner are? they should both be chevvy cos we bought the car at 10k miles from them & afaik its not been serviced anywhere else (tho we dont have a service history proir to us buying it).

mikey72

RandyRos wrote: »

I'm not stupid enough to believe that the belt alone cost £200, but I'm not a mechanic, hubby is always working so I have to deal with the car, I guess they thought they could take the urine a bit.

do you mean to check which brands the belt and tensioner are? they should both be chevvy cos we bought the car at 10k miles from them & afaik its not been serviced anywhere else (tho we dont have a service history proir to us buying it).

No, they could have fitted just the belt, not the belt.
They could have fitted the new belt, and some of the pulleys,
there may be a seperate adjuster to the tensioner pulley.
You really need to speak to the garage, and other chevvy dealers.

RandyRos

so check that the cambelt is new? is that what you mean. TN admits to not replacing anything else to do with the cam, only the belt.

I will be phoning some other chevvy dealers tomorrow

rev_henry

I had this a few weeks ago with my Hyundai. Booked it in with Hyundai to get the cambelt done, as they were cheapest only to find out they didn't do the pulleys (adjusters/whatever you wanna call them!) normally, just inspected them. Sounded bizarre to me, despite their reassurances so I cancelled and went with an indy that I trust who did the proper kit with pulleys for only a few quid more.

Anyway, I think what he meant by 'its £200 for the belt alone' is that its that much for the belt including labour. Most of the cost is labour. And this price sounds about right, even a bit cheap for a main dealer, which may be explained by them not doing the tensioners as I found out with Hyundai.

Sounds like they're offering to sort it out to keep you quiet, so I'd cautiously let them take it and see what they say. If they say its x amount and we're not contributing towards this cost/giving you a discount, or even if they do say they're knocking a bit off, contact Chevrolet/GM UK and ask them for a goodwill contribution as its only a couple of years out of guarantee and has been serviced with the main dealers all its life. With this on your side you should be looked on favourably with GM.

Keith

RandyRos wrote: »

I'm not stupid enough to believe that the belt alone cost £200, but I'm not a mechanic, hubby is always working so I have to deal with the car, I guess they thought they could take the urine a bit.

It's a long job to change the belt. So the labour adds up.

It's not a great deal longer to change the tensioner and water pump, probably another hour + parts depending on the engine.

Once the belt is off, most of the work is done to replace the water pump and tensioner.

You've not been over charged and you've not asked for the tensioner to be replaced.

RandyRos

thanks for the replies. I had no idea what a tensioner was before today, let alone that it should be changed with the cambelt. if i'd known that much about cars, i'd have done the !!!!!! myself! you expect the garage to know what needs replacing and when and to get it done so you have piece of mind, dont you? you cant be expected to know all the ins and outs of an engine, thats their job!

tbh if they do end up fixing it (for free or otherwise) im going to take it back to Smiths to make sure the works done properly, I dont trust TN anymore.

and being faced with a £600+ bill is terrifying me as we dont have any savings and we live 5 miles out of town, crap bus service etc, we cant be without a car for long. hubbys a discharged bankrupt and doesnt even have a bank account, we have no credit cards to fall back on. he's relying on a workmate to get him to and from work but his workmates daughter is in hospital so its not a long term arrangement. its no wonder I'm still awake at 2am! aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh!

diable

For the amount of work involved the tensioner should be replaced as on most cars its recommended and a false economy not to do as the car is in bits anyway.

Did the original garage phone you and say "we have your car in bits the tensioner looks ok but would you like it replaced"?