are we being ripped off by garages?

Question

i have 2 cars, ones a vauxhall the other is an audi. The vauxhall had a cam belt change at 4 years old but was 24,000 miles on clock. Vauxhall claim u need a new cambelt every 40,000 miles or every 4 years. The vauxhall now has 49,000 on clock and vauxhall reckons it will need changing at 60,000 miles on its 2nd cambelt. The audi has 44,000 on clock and is 5 years old. Audi reckon it needs a new cambelt asap! It used to be 65,000 miles in every car, whats going on?! I think im being ripped off by both manafacturers. Your opinions please...

Answer 1

i know a mechanic,and i could tell you some stories that would make your eyes water,but as far as your cam-belt goes,get it changed youre not been ripped off there,youre being very well advised. a cam-belt is rubber and does wear quickly as well as rots,get it changed is my advice because if it goes you could be looking at a new engine.

Answer 2

Hi Jessie, all car manufacturers actually test to destruction many samples of the cars that they produce. The reason that manufacturers set limits is to take in to account wear and tear and also ageing as well. Cambelts are pretty remarkable in thats they dont break more often than they do, i personnally when i owend a vaxuhall changed my cambelt every 30,000 miles or two years as there could be oil contamination on the belt that would reduce the life of the belt and could cause premature faliure, the vauxhall engine if its an ecotec engine is an interferance engne meaning that if the belt does snap when the engine is running means that the internal components would hit each other and at best bend vlaves meaning the head would have to come off and at worse a full engine rebuild so i strongly reccomend that you follow the manufacturers reccomendations

Answer 3

Recommendations for cambelt changes vary from car to car. Personally, I'd always change a belt every 3 years / 36,000 miles, which is possibly a bit sooner than needed.
HOWEVER, consider the following...
A cambelt is usually a 3-4cm wide strip of rubber band, with little teeth on it, which whizzes around all the little pulleys on the engine, as it spins at 6-7000rpm. It has to endure temperatures from -20C on a cold January morning, to maybe 80-90C on a hot day with the engine running fast. It's a wonder they don't break more often!
If it breaks, it will do so when the engine is running. On most (but not all) engines, what then happens is that the valves at the top of the engine smash into the pistons with such force that it often completely wrecks the whole engine. This has happened to me, on a Vauxhall, funnily enough, and my failure to spend about £150 on a belt change cost me over £600! And on that occasion I got off lightly as it happened just after I'd started the engine, & was still manoeuvering out of a parking space.
It's your choice, of course, but you're NOT being ripped off!

Answer 4

Car makers and garages are always careful on what they recommend regarding servicing and cam belt changes. They can not afford to have their cars break down through lack of proper advice. Most main agents have set prices for work carried out on their models so they don't normally 'rip' people off as such. However, I have always found that it is best to take time to search out a local 'back street' garage which usually charges much less and also tends to be more friendly to talk to. Because they are small, they can't afford to lose good customers, so they will do a good job. Once a car is no longer under warranty I have always used a small garage and they have even asked if I wanted to watch my car being worked on. I found this very good as the mechanic pointed out the items to be serviced, how often, the time taken etc. Now we live in Spain and I do the same here, quite fun really as the mechanic doesn't speak English and I only a few simple words in Spanish. But it works and I know the car is well looked after and nothing is missed out. The other good thing is that they arrange a time for me to take the car in and they start working on it immediately, so no waiting all day to collect.

Answer 5

Jessie, Always have an independent mechanic at least keep an eye on these belts as I think those "close changes" are excessive. By removing a part of the cam belt cover anyone could survey the tooth wear on the belts. Bare in mind off-shore car dealers really get into your sneakers when car repairs become necessary. Parts are nothing short of outrageous in cost and the dealer shop rates are noticeably higher than American car dealers.
Put timing belts in your memory bank when shopping for a new car.
Everybody and their brother have replaced timing belts with timing chains nowadays and a chain out lasts a belt by hundreds of thousands of miles they are oil lubricated. Timing chains have idler take-ups to remove the slack if they stretch.
Timing belts also have actual drive teeth which disintegrate over time. The drive pulleys are usually made of aluminum which also wear somewhat.

Answer 6

Unfortunately timing belts are the invention of the devil!
They have a limited life, they suffer internal fatigue damage due to age and wear that cannot be determined by inspection and when they go wrong they lunch your engine! The garage is probably erring on the side of caution because if they said it was fine and it went bang a week later you would go straight back to them and demand it was fixed for free!
Either keep your belt changes up to date (and manufacturers keep changing their mind about when that is) or buy a car with a cam chain (and they are not immune to going bang) either.
About the rip-off issue, I am an Auto-electrician, my diagnostic equipment costs a fortune to buy (talk in multiples of £1000 at a time) costs a fortune to keep the software up to date (£1200 a year at the moment). On top of that I am always having to buy special tools, my workshop rent is nearly as much as my mortgage and my children have to eat!
Just putting the case for the dark side!

Answer 7

Did it?

There is a time limit as well as a distance limit to when things need to be replaced because they do wear out even just sitting not being used.

Get the timing belt replaced when they say to replace it, otherwise you may be up for some very expensive repairs. The idiots who only replace things when they break are the ones really get ripped off (largely because they have things fail on them a lot more than those who have maintenance done properly, not to mention bad service histories lowering resale value).

Answer 8

The Astra belt should be OK as the interval for that car is 40000 miles or 4 years.
The Audi should be replaced because it is 5 years old.

Answer 9

If the brake calipers weren't sticking or putting up from the final brake activity 3,000 miles in the past, and the brakes have been donning frequently, the quickest i've got ever heard of pads donning out is approximately 12,000 miles on some overall performance variety automobiles. frequently you get a minimum of 30,000 miles on maximum front pads and this is the reason new brakes are first checked back at that mileage. Even a clean motor vehicle broker does no longer frequently verify the brakes on a clean motor vehicle for the 1st time in the previous 10,000 miles.

Answer 10

I swore a long time ago never to buy another Vauxhall. Every time I took the wretched thing for a service, I ended up feeling like I'd been thoroughly shafted.

Now you're out of warranty, find an independent mechanic, preferably one recommended by a friend.