Cam belt, what a poor design fault, I wonder what the most expensive one to change ??

[reggie musson]

Cam belts, I hate them and allways avoid cars with engines that have what I think is a design fault.
A friend of mine had a Alpha 156 and paid around £900 to change one of these horrid things, I don`t know if he was just massively over charged but it seems a lot.
Anyone with a story about these nasty rubber bands, and I wonder whats the car that has the most expensive one to change ?? ( so people are warned if they need a second cheaper motor )

Reggie

 

[ringway]

Try this, posted earlier this year by Grober. It's only a 5, minute job. Don't know where these garages get their prices from.



[YOUTUBE]oZ9E4Vua32k&feature=player_embedded[/YOUTUBE]

 

[DSM10000]

Audi A8 4.2 V8. The dealer quoted £1800!

 

[Deleted member 37751]

I had a cam belt snap on my old Audi A6 2.5 TDi.

It cost me £1200 to repair and I vowed to never buy another belt driven engine again....

 

[GP801]

Had the belt etc done on our 97 polo at a VW dealer. Think it was about £300. Anyway after just over 2 years the new belt failed. Fortunately it was on the drive and no damage was done. Local mechanic charged £180 to replace it and pulleys etc inc parts. We managed to get the cost reimbursed by the original garage.

 

[markjay]

I believe that the official quote for a cam-belt change on a V6 Rover 75 is 10 hours labour plus parts

And try a spark plug change for a 4-cyl Toyota Previa or a Mitsubishi FTO - I was told it's an engine-out job.

 

[BlackC55]

We did an audi V6 this year. 550 ic water pump.

Ferrari and Maserati are th emost expensive IIRC

 

[trapperjohn]

Ah my old Beetle.

The Original Fast Volkswagen Belt Change. - YouTube

Or a VW Bettle engine in and out. Fast forward this to around two mins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKF6dcKjLJo&feature=related

And do not try this at home.

 

[Doodle]

A friend of mine had a Alpha 156 and paid around £900 to change one of these horrid things, I don`t know if he was just massively over charged but it seems a lot.

That's about right. I'm pretty sure the official factory guide for some of the 90's fwd Alfa's was to take the engine out.

 

[Henry D]

The old Fiat coupe 20v turbo required the engine to come out for timing belt change,14 hours labour plus the belt kit

 

[grober]

Owners of 4 cylinder petrol Audis can now comfort themselves the latest engines use a form of toothed metal chain timing gear. However the 4 cylinder diesels still use timing belts afaik The argument for timing belts is that that they are quieter and dare I whisper it CHEAPER! Before the latest MB 4 cylinder diesel owners get complacent the latest generation of twin turbo 4 cylinder diesels have their timing gear at the rear of the engine between the block and gearbox bell housing. Less liable to go wrong I know but I hate to think of the bill when they do? http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_OM_651

 

[Will]

Worth remembering that timing chains aren't without their faults either. Early MB simplex chains used to snap or jump teeth on occasions, some of that might have been attributable to the early tensioner designs.

Even some of the later chains give the occasional failure - a couple of M111 engines I can recall, and a couple of the M119 V8s IIRC on here have been mentioned before. Don't some of the Vauxhall engines have known weaknesses with chains too?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of belts instead, just worth looking at it realistically

Will

 

[Martyn_n]

A friend of mine had a Alpha 156 and paid around £900 to change one of these horrid things, I don`t know if he was just massively over charged but it seems a lot.
Reggie

If it was a 3 or 3.2 ltr it is quite a big job and no doubt a main dealer would charge about that much. If it was a 2ltr the price would probably include two belts (a balancer shaft one as well as the timing one) and also the cam variator, so once again I'm not surprised by the cost. 1.6 should be cheaper.

 

[EDZ649]

We did an audi V6 this year. 550 ic water pump.

Ferrari and Maserati are th emost expensive IIRC

I agree, some of the quad cam Maserati's have to have the engine removed to gain access to the chains as they are on the rear of the engine (I know you are talking about belts but same principle)

 

[markjay]

Belts are supposed to be quieter, and provide better timing at high engine revs.

Chains are more durable, but are noisier and stretch with age.

Horses for courses....

 

[markjay]

My 1982 Astra with the 1.8L OHC engine had a non-interference engine. When the belt slipped off the crank pulley, it was just a matter of stopping at the side of the road and sliding it back into place... but now we have progress so a snapped belt means damaged valves and pistons, and on a 5-years old car can mean the scrapyard...

 

[Will]

Belts are supposed to be quieter, and provide better timing at high engine revs.

Haven't looked into it, but I thought it was the other way round - wouldn't a belt be more likely to stretch/flex at high loads/RPM than a steel chain? The chains don't stretch either, they can only wear along with the sprockets, leading to slight inaccuracies in the timing (one sprocket lagging behind another by a few degrees)

 

[SilverSaloon]

well i just did the timing belt on my Alfa 156 2.5 V6.

Indeed its a pig of a job. I actually only did it because I had to change the water pump.

The timing belt needs to come off and access is TIGHT. You need to fit camlocks to get the timing correct too so this involves removing the top of the engine to get at the cams.

£800 is the going-rate to change one, hence the reason why i did it all myself. Camlocks were about £60 on their own. Car is only worth little over a grand so not worth getting a garage to do it.

 

[Rob77]

Haven't looked into it, but I thought it was the other way round - wouldn't a belt be more likely to stretch/flex at high loads/RPM than a steel chain? The chains don't stretch either, they can only wear along with the sprockets, leading to slight inaccuracies in the timing (one sprocket lagging behind another by a few degrees)

I'm no expert, as you know but the chains must surely stretch. Certainly, the final drive chain on every motorcycle I ever owned needed regular tensioning to account for stretch and I can't see how a cam chain would differ.

 

[Will]

I'm no expert, as you know but the chains must surely stretch. Certainly, the final drive chain on every motorcycle I ever owned needed regular tensioning to account for stretch and I can't see how a cam chain would differ.

Like I say - they don't 'stretch' as such, they wear. And so do the sprockets eventually, which can obviously lead to timing being slightly out of sync from one driven sprocket to another.

Likewise on your motorbike, you're adjusting to account for wear - which naturally is more of an issue with a drive chain exposed to the elements rather than a timing chain that is constantly lubricated by filtered oil in an enclosed environment