New cam belt and water pump......................AND THE WINNER IS.................

Haych

Clucking Bell!

£520 for a timing belt and water pump?

Strangefan

. 

bertie

Haych said:

Clucking Bell!

£520 for a timing belt and water pump?

draining ,replenishing and testing the cooling system takes the time  and is most of the cost, apparently - but looking at some of the previous posts, not too bad at all.

Haych

My missus has just had her timing belt and water pump replaced and it came to £255, and I thought that was expensive!

I would have done it for her if it was a better time of the year but there's no chance I'm standing out in the freezing rain trying to do it in January.

TTony

Haych said:

My missus has just had her timing belt and water pump replaced and it came to £255, and I thought that was expensive!

How often do they need doing?

I've been married 20-odd years, and don't think hers have ever been done.

TheOtherDennis

Strangefan said:

Christ man post the answer already! 

He's put it as an edit on the first post in the thread.

Haych

TTony said:

Haych said:

My missus has just had her timing belt and water pump replaced and it came to £255, and I thought that was expensive!

How often do they need doing?

I've been married 20-odd years, and don't think hers have ever been done.

Depends on the car I think.  On the wife's car it's every ten years or 100k miles.

By and large, though, they don't tend to just give up these days.  I was talking to a mechanic friend not so long ago about it and he says he rarely, if ever, sees a broken timing belt that hasn't been caused by an external factor.  

It's usually an engine auxiliary run off the same belt that tightens up or seizes completely that causes them to go, or a serpentine belt that breaks and then gets caught in the pulleys/belts of the engine timing.

EDIT, yeah, I see what you did now.  D'oh.  Have a lol.

chillidoggy

bertie said:

Haych said:

Clucking Bell!

£520 for a timing belt and water pump?

draining ,replenishing and testing the cooling system takes the time  and is most of the cost, apparently - but looking at some of the previous posts, not too bad at all.

Just buy the parts and do it yourself.

Fishboy7

TheMarlin said:

My guess, £885

My wife completely destroyed the engine in her Mini Cooper S days before Xmas.  I somehow limped it to the garage on two cylinders.  

Needed new timing chain, guides, valves, pistons, valve stems, and a full bottom end rebuild with new bearings.  Head had to be sent away for work. 

 

That was £4K!!! The bulk of which was labour…
only got it back yesterday.  Fab job, but I fear a preventable one.  I’m now trying to teach my wife the concept of ‘mechanical sympathy’

They regassed the air con, which was nice….

Wow - how is it possible do this much damage under normal driving conditions?  (No offence to your Mrs), 

bertie

chillidoggy said:

bertie said:

Haych said:

Clucking Bell!

£520 for a timing belt and water pump?

draining ,replenishing and testing the cooling system takes the time  and is most of the cost, apparently - but looking at some of the previous posts, not too bad at all.

Just buy the parts and do it yourself.

3 reasons

1. Have nowhere to do it
2. Dont know how
3. Have absolutely no inclination to try -  I know absolutely nothing about what goes on under the bonnet, and I aim to keep it that way

My retired old man "mission statement"  is   -    If you can pay a man to do it,  do so.   --  Mrs Bert seems to be very excited bout that for some reason

Kittyfrisk

chillidoggy said:

bertie said:

Haych said:

Clucking Bell!

£520 for a timing belt and water pump?

draining ,replenishing and testing the cooling system takes the time  and is most of the cost, apparently - but looking at some of the previous posts, not too bad at all.

Just buy the parts and do it yourself.

Once I would have agreed with you, but modern motors are now way too complex to be able to DIY service such things easily.

My Mum gave up driving last October & gave me her car.
It is a 2015 Skoda Fabia SE MPI mk3 and despite it having the pulling power of an asthmatic hamster, it had only done 11,500 miles from new! So a no brainer.
As the service interval for the belts was 5 years or 50k miles, it should have been fine but I didn't want to risk it so had the belts & water pump done. £500 & almost a heart attack later... I realised that having had my cars serviced for years by a great non VAT registered garage near work, the new guy at home charged VAT, so 20% on a large but reasonable bill became HOW MUCH!

Anyway, before doing anything, the crank & cam shafts have to be locked in position using specialist tools, as if there is any slight variation in the alignment of the timing train while replacing the belt(s), the engine can run badly & be damaged.
Even the mechanic had problems, as the timing alignment marks on the timing cogs were not where they were supposed to be (from the factory) & if he had done things 'by the book' it could have screwed the engine. Scary shit.

I love modern engineering, but I really hate the inability to work on it.

Haych

I always work on the assumption that if somebody can put it together then I can dismantle it and reassemble it again.

I just don't always want to.

ronnyb

I did one on a Mk2 Golf 1600 petro; some years ago. I didn't use the proper locking tools and the belt jumped a tooth because i hadn't set the tensioner correctly. Fortunately it just threw the timing out and didn't wreck the engine.  

chillidoggy

 If you can pay a man to do it,  do so.   --  Mrs Bert seems to be very excited bout that for some reason

That's a slippery slope........

bertie

chillidoggy said:

 If you can pay a man to do it,  do so.   --  Mrs Bert seems to be very excited bout that for some reason

That's a slippery slope........

that's what she's hoping for I think.................................

skunkwerx

I used a Renault main dealers recently. 

Mot. 

Service which included cabin and air filter, oil change, oil filter. 

Front brake pads. 

Aux/acc belt kit changed. 

£730. But it did include them collecting and delivering the car from me.

Kinda steep but then again a lot of the independents are also steep in London, with the downside that theyre also shite.