Translation for cam belt?

[confused of chalus]

Having had a horrific Quote for €600 to replace the cam belt on a Renault scenic -apparently well overdue - I want to get some more quotes. But what is it called in French? And does anyone have any idea how much it might cost if not done by main dealer?

[woolybanana]

courroie de transmission.

It should be much cheaper if done by a local garage; make sure that they are qualified to work on Renaults, but given it is such a common vehicle in France it it unlikely that they are not so.

Local garages often very good bet imho, should be much cheaper.

[confused of chalus]

Thank you for replying so quickly. Having been told it must be done I am living in fear that it will fail when I'm miles from anywhere and want the job done quickly. I will try a couple of local garagistes for a price.

[dave21478]

courroie de distribution.

Make sure the job includes the tensioner and idler rollers - call it a kit de distribution. Also consider the water pump while its in bits...pompe a eau.

Access is awkward on a Scenic - its a crapper of a job I dont like doing but most French garages will have done so many of them previously its not a big deal for them.

[woolybanana]

dave, I've just checked; both are used.

[dave21478]

Not really, no.

"courroie de transmisson" is just a drive belt - could be the timing belt, could be the alternator belt or any other kind of drive belt.

"courroie de distribution" is specifically the timing belt. If you want an accurate quote from a garage, be specific.

[Jay]

Courroie d'arbre à came

[Chancer]

Dave is right, unsurprisingly.

All drive belts may be courroies de transmission but in 10 years I have only heard them called the shortened, generic, courroie, 100% of the time that I have heard a cam belt described it has been courroie de distribution.

The only times I have ever heard the full courroie de transmission used was for a lawn mower or a Daf 33 which had a rubber band drive line.

[AnOther]

€600 is pretty steep when you can buy the parts from around €100 depending on actual model.

I doubt any garage will do you any favours on buying the kit in but nothing wrong with supplying it yourself and just having a garage fit them.

[Chancer]

The price didnt surprise me, we are in France after all, in the UK there are plenty of people that specialise in these expensive and "necessary" procédures, they have got it down to a fine art, source the parts for the best price and the competition between them has driven the price down to a reasonable level, win-win for the motorist and the specialist, lose-lose for the franchised dealers.

Thats how the free market is supposed to operate, for the benefit of all except the biggest and greediest, then we have l'exception Française [:P]

I'm a bit of an extremist and a Chancer, I changed my belt alone, no poulies or tensioners  at 250'000 miles when the belt showed signs of degradation, I then found forensically that it was the original that came on the vehicle from new, the previous owner my friend had paid the main dealer a fortune either 2 or 3 times to have it replaced according to the service Schedule.

My minimum non belt and braces job cost me £8, Martin had spent over £1K IIRC and for nothing, I reasoned that the original poulies and tensioners were of the highest quality, the vehicle had a 3 year unlimited mileage warranty from new, if they had lasted for 250K miles they were likely to last longer than any aftermarket replacments that I could fit, that has been my experience in the past, I dont do many miles now but am about to hit 300K miles and touch wood its all holding strong, I remove the covers and visually inspect the belt every oïl change.