Cam belt - Vauxhall Astra 1.7TDi

GhostDog_2

I understand prevention is better than cure so I've decided to be kind to my car! :rolleyes:

Can anyone give me any idea of how much a new cam belt costs? And is it advisable to use a Vauxhall garage or is a good local garage sufficient given that I believe there are different types of cam belt...?

And is it better to ask a man to phone the garage on my behalf for a quote?!

Crabman

You could get a man to phone not sure whether it would make a difference, the key is that you are fully aware of the cost before making the call.

I'm not sure about the cost issue I'm afraid, someone else will no doubt be able to help

GhostDog_2

Well I took the bull by the horns - so to speak - and phoned local Vauxhall garage.

£280 :eek: :eek: :eek:

mattymoo

How many miles has your car done?
I had a 1998 Astra and in its third year, having done 50k miles, the cambelt snapped resulting in the need for a new engine. At the time Vauxhall specified a cambelt change at 72000 miles but quite a lot were failing at 50k or thereabouts. Vauxhall met 95% of the replacement engine and hire car costs iirc. It was a company car - very large fleet operator and so no doubt that carried a bit of clout.
Like you say, prevention is better than what can happen if the belt fails.

manda1205

GhostDog wrote: »

Well I took the bull by the horns - so to speak - and phoned local Vauxhall garage.

£280 :eek: :eek: :eek:

Its more of a labour intensive job than the actual cost of the cam belt, but look at it this way if you don't do it and it snaps, basically you'd be looking at either an engine rebuild or new engine, this would certainly be more than £280. Personally when I buy a car I find out when cams been done, look for paper work to back this up, and as this sort of job only gets done about 3 x in the cars life (on average) its just something thats gotta be done.
Oh and a vauxhall main agent will most certainly want alot more than you local little garage down the road. Main agents about my way charge at least 4x what my dad charges.

Hermione54

Try and get a car with a chain driven cam.

isotonic_uk

I thought the new astras where on a chain driven cam? Does anyone know if the new Focus TDci's have a chain as well or is it cam belt?

thanks

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

You don't need to use a Vauxhall garage. A cambelt is a labour-intensive but average job for any garage.

Just get recommendations for a local garage and use them. No need to pay dealer rates.

mcjordi

try a local independant garage i got my 1.6 astra mk4 cambelt done for £180 (thats the full kit replaced aswell)

movingforward2010

im 99.9% certain that the waterpump should be replaced at the same time on the mk4 Astra (poss mk5), as if this goes soon after the cambelt is replaced it will cause the cambelt to fail and cause the same damage. The water pump is quite cheap its self

check with someone on here
http://forum.astraownersnetwork.co.uk/forum.php



Ive got an astra 1.8 16v SRi (2001)
had water pump and cambelt done 2 weeks ago and the price for both was £230

mcjordi

yup the water pump should be done at the same time.