Cam belt change

Thunderbird_2

Hintza wrote: »

The car will not be worth a huge amount but probably significantly more than the cost of the cam belt.

Actually, it is the cost of replacing the car is very significant compared to the cambelt change cost, especially, if you take the lost months of insurance, the lost days left till the end of the month of the road tax when you reclaim the remaining before scrapping the car, plus the inconvenience of breaking down in a rainy day, etc..

I would change it, it is a Honda after all!

naturally_2

Help please! I have a VW polo and all the information that 2 garages can find, and in my handbook says that VW don't actually give a recommended mileage for replacement of cam belt, but recomend inspection at every service (garage chap seems to think this is a bit useless as you don't see anything wrong until its already gone). Mechanic says the recommended milelage to change the cam belt on Golfs is 85,000, but since there is no recommendation and my car has done 60,000 I am going to get it done as soon as I can.

The question is, the mechanic I spoke to today says he will give me a quote for it, and it will be in the region of £240 - and he says other garages may quote a lot less (£100 ish) but to beware as the could be only changing the belt itself, whereas he says it needs other things doing too (he did say what but I forget - something to do with electricals related to cam belt?)

Anyway my question to anyone who knows a bit about cars is what do you think? Does it need all the extras doing which would more than double what I pay? Obviously it would be nice not to have to find an extra £140 but I am well aware that full whack is still a lot cheaper than a new engine if it does go.

Thank you!

Hintza

naturally wrote: »

Help please! I have a VW polo and all the information that 2 garages can find, and in my handbook says that VW don't actually give a recommended mileage for replacement of cam belt, but recomend inspection at every service (garage chap seems to think this is a bit useless as you don't see anything wrong until its already gone). Mechanic says the recommended milelage to change the cam belt on Golfs is 85,000, but since there is no recommendation and my car has done 60,000 I am going to get it done as soon as I can.

The question is, the mechanic I spoke to today says he will give me a quote for it, and it will be in the region of £240 - and he says other garages may quote a lot less (£100 ish) but to beware as the could be only changing the belt itself, whereas he says it needs other things doing too (he did say what but I forget - something to do with electricals related to cam belt?)

Anyway my question to anyone who knows a bit about cars is what do you think? Does it need all the extras doing which would more than double what I pay? Obviously it would be nice not to have to find an extra £140 but I am well aware that full whack is still a lot cheaper than a new engine if it does go.

Thank you!

Yes

Golfs used to be 85k, ours went at 30k. Don't skimp on it and the quote sounds very reasonable to me.

naturally_2

Thanks. I got two more quotes form a VW dealership and an independent but recomended place, £290 and £190 respectively. I didn't really want it doing by VW because they always seem to mess it up, and both say they fit the full system not just cam belt so I'll go to the independent place.

goldspanners

naturally wrote: »

Thanks. I got two more quotes form a VW dealership and an independent but recomended place, £290 and £190 respectively. I didn't really want it doing by VW because they always seem to mess it up, and both say they fit the full system not just cam belt so I'll go to the independent place.

£190 sound more realistic, if you shopped around a bit you might save another tenner or so, if your car has the same engine as the ones ive changed belts on then its a very simple job and not too labour intensive.

jeannieblue

I can't believe some of the gambling on here..

Get it done or don't.. cost of paying for the job versus cost of replacement car/engine work. Choice is yours.

Pssst

It depends if your honda is an interference engine. Most are, a major design flaw IMHO. I had a new cambelt in my Golf about 5 years ago and it was about £130 at a main dealer then. It wasnt a simple one though,lots of pullys to take off etc..

ioscorpio

My local main Fiat dealer has a price of £69.99 on their website for a cambelt fitted. Other makes of cars that they sell are also cheap.

http://www.autoworld-uk.com/default.aspx?pageID=187

NickWarren_2

While I admit that is a cracking price, I'm guessing it doesn't include pulleys / tensioners and the water pump, IMO replacing the belt is pointless if you don't replace the pulleys at the same time.

goldspanners

ioscorpio wrote: »

My local main Fiat dealer has a price of £69.99 on their website for a cambelt fitted. Other makes of cars that they sell are also cheap.

http://www.autoworld-uk.com/default.aspx?pageID=187

that is a good price from a main dealer.
some belts are easy peasy to change including the pulley,some can be done in under 20 minutes from key off to key on again. but i would make sure at that price belt and pulleys are being changed, as nick says above it would be a waste of £69.00 if the pulley failed after the new belt was fitted. it does happen.