2008 Ford Fiesta 1.4 TDCI - Cam belt replacement - should they replace the cam seals?

scottpa100new

Hi everyone,

Some quick questions - but the background info is below.

1. Should cam seals be replaced when a cam belt is replaced?
2. Is it common practice to do so?
3. How long should a replacement water pump last?
4. Do you think I have reasonable grounds to get my cam belt, water pump plus labour refunded from November last year?

last year we moved house so in the November we went to our new local Bosch Car Service centre and had our cam belt replaced. All fine. The pricing was opaque, they wanted more than what I had been told on the phone when I went to pay so we got them back down to what we had been told so nonetheless it left a bitter taste in our mouths so we went back to our old garage when the next service was due.

Which brings us to now and our old garage phoned up asking us when our cam belt was replaced. November 2014 I said. Our old garage told us the cam seals were leaking. And also told us that because they don't know how long that they had been leaking that the cam belt should also be replaced just to be sure. Okay - proceed we said.

Our garage phoned us up again whilst the work was taking place and said that the water pump was leaking - despite the fact that had also been replaced during the cam belt replacement back in November 2014. To be fair our garage took photos of the leaking pump in-situ and have also given it us to take away.

I'd appreciate your thoughts because I expect a cam belt to last 100,000 miles as per Ford's servicing rota and we are currently not very happy and £400 or so out of pocket!

molerat

They do not remove the cam shaft so would not replace the seals. The cam belt needs replacing because of the oil leak, it is always good practice to replace a contaminated belt no matter how young it is so "lasting 100,000 miles" is irrelevant. If the seals were not leaking at the previous cam belt change - surely they would have noticed and used the opportunity to dip into your wallet - it is probably just one of those things. The water pump is a different matter though and should be replaced under their warranty.

arcon5

You don't need to remove the cams to replace the seals. But no, they are not items typically replaced with a timing belt.

No chance of getting a refund on the belt, it's not faulty, it was just contaminated by another fault that the garage didn't cause.

The water pump however, you may have had some rights, but not giving the garage the opportunity to offer a remedy diminishes many rights you may have had.

straighttalker

Cam seals aren't touched on a cam belt change as others have said.

If the water pump has failed, you'll have to take it back to the repairing garage. If the part is faulty, the manufacturer or seller of the part will exchange or refund. But you'll have to pay for labour in removing and refitting the new part.