mint Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 ..........for a Mazda Premacy. Just been to the garage and the man thought it would cost 400 euros to change it.He has said he'd get a definitive price for us by Monday.So, my questions are these: does the quote sound reasonable?Is there an easy way that I can use to find out the cost of a timing belt in either sterling or euros?I reckon I can get someone to send it out to me from the UK if it's subtantially cheaper.Any thoughts, suggestions, SVP? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugsy Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 The price of the actual cam-belt is insignificant as its the labour involved that bumps up the price.Make sure that the belt tensioner is changed at the same time and check whether its advisable to change the water pump as well. (not all vehicles need this)If it makes you feel better my VW costs over 700 euros for a belt/tensioner/pump change.Gary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted October 28, 2011 Author Share Posted October 28, 2011 Bugs, thanks for the prompt and informative reply. I was preparing to grasp the nettle anyhow....Best wishes to you and Mrs Bugs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clair Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 Sounds about right... I think we paid around 600 € altogether to an Opel garage 3 or 4 years ago. Something about an oil leak which required the belt removal and we agreed for it to be changed earlier than suggested by the Opel manual... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 [quote user="Bugsy"]If it makes you feel better my VW costs over 700 euros for a belt/tensioner/pump change.Gary.[/quote]Wow, cost me £17.50 for the belt & tensioner from the UK (the water pump should not need replacing unless it is faulty) and 3 hrs of my time to fit it, that was 20k miles/2 years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugsy Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 [quote user="Jay"][quote user="Bugsy"]If it makes you feel better my VW costs over 700 euros for a belt/tensioner/pump change.Gary.[/quote]Wow, cost me £17.50 for the belt & tensioner from the UK (the water pump should not need replacing unless it is faulty) and 3 hrs of my time to fit it, that was 20k miles/2 years ago.[/quote]It depends on the vehicle. Most of the modern VW/Audi vehicles (Golf/Polo excepted) change the water pump as well simply because it takes the same amount of labour to do a pump so it makes sense to do it while its stripped for a belt-change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 [quote user="Bugsy"][quote user="Jay"][quote user="Bugsy"]If it makes you feel better my VW costs over 700 euros for a belt/tensioner/pump change.Gary.[/quote]Wow, cost me £17.50 for the belt & tensioner from the UK (the water pump should not need replacing unless it is faulty) and 3 hrs of my time to fit it, that was 20k miles/2 years ago.[/quote]It depends on the vehicle. Most of the modern VW/Audi vehicles (Golf/Polo excepted) change the water pump as well simply because it takes the same amount of labour to do a pump so it makes sense to do it while its stripped for a belt-change.[/quote]I agree - common sense to do that if required in service schedule. I have to say that I have never had a water pump fail on any modern car (used to be a regular thing in the 60's 70's). I'll probably regret saying that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted October 28, 2011 Author Share Posted October 28, 2011 Thank you for your further replies, Bugs, Clair and Jay.I'll be sure to ask about the tensioners and the water pump.Unfortunately, it's also due for its "big" service so it's just as well that I changed some pounds into euros recently.Still, we've had the car 4 years now and it's given no trouble and we aim to keep it like that as far as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sid Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 Sweet, I've just dug out my invoice from last September (2010) for my Megane Estate. It was 548€ for a small service (oil and filter change), plus changing the cam belt and auxiliary belt, tensioners, and water pump. The labour element was 4 hours. As Bugsy said, the cost of the belts themselves is quite low; mine came in a kit (2 belts, one for cams, the other for alternator at 106€). On modern cars the access is often VERY poor and the engine often has to be partially lifted out in order to get at everything. This is why they recommend changing the water pump at the same time; if it was to fail later (new belts = more strain on the pump pulley/bearings) then the labour cost would be incurred again in lifting the engine, just to change a pump costing 55€. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarkkent Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 My Renault Modus 1.5D needed a new starter motor so I took it to my usual garage.Later that day, the phone rang: "According to the service schedule, you will need a new timing belt in about 500 miles time. Since we have to dismantle the front of your car to get at the starter motor we think that you ought to consider having the belt put on at the same time. We will only charge you the labour cost for the belt plus an extra half hour for the starter motor."I knew that it would be expensive, so I asked them to do an MOT as well.I reckoned on about £600, which is pretty much what it came to - without VAT. The bill came to the wrong side of £830. [+o(] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 I second the view about modern components (cam belts excluded) often lasting for the life of the vehicle whereas in the past they would need frequent replacement, hence certainly in the past doing a water pump at the same time as the cam belt made complete sense as did/does changing the tensioner, pulleys etc.However..............Given the longer and longer warrantees offered with new vehicles the components fitted at the factory are the best possible quality, you will not be able to buy better to replace them with and there is a huge risk that you will in fact be replacing a perfectly serviceable part with one of inferior quality, even if you buy the parts from a main dealer after a certain time the parts they sell will be sourced from the same OE and aftermarket suppliers, if the model is still in production and a part is replaced under warranty it will "probably" be the same part as delivered to the factory, after 3 years probably not.When I was young i ran a part time business repairing and servicing and welding cars, it was to support myself during my apprenticeship and post apprentice studies, back then it was always plugs points and condensor, the condensor was another "false economy" not to fit however in all those years I never came across a condensor failure other than ones that I had fitted during a service, I had a Crypton machine and knew how to read the oscilloscope trace to tell me when a condensor was on its way out, after that I only fitted them on the rare occasions when they actually needed it, OK I made ten bob less per service but never ever again had to go out on breakdown to a condensor failure.On very reliable vehicles like VAG group ones I use the same logic for things like cam belt tensioners, water pumps, drive pulleys etc unless i am aware of a particular weakness, my 1.9 TDi has now done close to 300000 miles and pretty much everything is still original except the bi-mass flywheel (a known weakness) it still has the original exhaust, battery, well everything really. I did the cam belt a year or so ago and found as I had suspected that despite the stamps in the service book it still had the original belt after 1/4 million miles, I had been keeping an eye on it and the time had come to change it as it was beginning to perish and fray, I decided to change the belt alone and leave everything else as factory fitted, the belt cost six quid IIRC and time will tell if I have made a false economy.This year the alternator stopped charging, on inspection it was just the brushes worn to the limit, I did a temporary bodge as the rotor slip ring was grooved (I desoldered and released a couple of mm of carbon) and dependant on how long it lasted I would either buy a brush pack or a new alternator, it is still holding strong 6 months later. In the past I would have considered myself lucky if an alternator or starter motor had lasted 60000 miles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted October 28, 2011 Author Share Posted October 28, 2011 Thank you so much, Sid, Clarkkent & Chance. Duly forewarned. So......no need now for me to reply to the Christmas thread; I think that's Christmas cancelled![:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugsy Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 You've been out of the trade too long "C".I owned an independant VW/Audi garage in the UK and can only say this. If it wasn't for failure of parts on cars I would not have been in business. As an example we changed cambelt tensioners on VAG engines dozens and dozens of times, all with bearing failures. Interestingly with waterpumps VAG still insist on using plastic impellers on theirs where an aftermarket unit with aluminum impeller has been shown to be much stronger and more reliable.It takes seven hours to do a cambelt on a newish Audi A4 as the front of the car has to be removed. It takes the same time (nearly) to change a waterpump. It therefore makes perfect sense to change the pump at the same time as the cambelt. Remember also that the vehicle has already done 120000 kilometres or 5 years of use before this work has to take place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomoss Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 Chancer, you make a very good point regarding the probable quality of replacement parts.As someone who has always maintained his own vehicles, my mind is boggled by what contributors have to pay for relatively minor servicing of their cars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Zoff Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 Now that my Mazda Xedos V6 is 12 years old and has done nearly 180,000 miles, I am getting a bit mean with servicing costs. I have just bought a timing belt kit made by FAI - belt, 2 pulleys and a tensioner - for £42 from Happy Motorists of Rotherham. The whole kit cost less than any one of the 4 components if bought through Mazda.Given the work involved, I hope the FAI parts are no worse than those I will be chucking away. It took me a whole day to change the belt 60,000 miles ago - and the Mazda belt I removed then looked as good as new. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOther Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Last year my pal in UK charged me around £350 for a cam belt plus tensioners and waterpump, can't be more precise as he did some other work for me to and the bill was not itemised.One point worth noting. on VAG vehicles if you have the job done professionally using the genuine VAG kit then if it subsequently lets go within it's normal lifetime they will pay for the repairs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted October 29, 2011 Author Share Posted October 29, 2011 Erns, I'm sorry to be so ignorant of these things but can you please explain what a VAG vehicle is?[:$] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Is is a German car for WAGs!!!![6] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suein56 Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 [quote user="sweet 17"]I'm sorry to be so ignorant of these things but can you please explain what a VAG vehicle is?[/quote]VW/Audi - have no idea what the G stands for!Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugsy Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Group Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suein56 Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 [quote user="Bugsy"]Group[/quote]Thank you; as someone said 'a day which passes when you learn nothing is a day wasted'.Today I learnt 2 things - does that mean I live longer, or I get a gold star?Or both?Sue [:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted October 29, 2011 Author Share Posted October 29, 2011 How knowledgeable you all are!The days when OH only drove Mercs are long gone. Mind you, no great come-down, as it happens, as we now both love Far Eastern cars. So reliable and value for money!OK, not the image or cachet or whatever the word is, but such lovely things to drive.....almost like toys with precise steering and all the usual "extras" come as standard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 VAG = Very Angry GirlsOr could be Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft usually abbreviated to Volkswagen AG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Very Available Girls? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted October 29, 2011 Author Share Posted October 29, 2011 Very ATTRACTIVE Girls [:D][:P] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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