Cambelt WARNING

[Avant4me]

So my car goes in for service today, and I had read somewhere about getting the cam belts done early and thought it would be a good idea after having it mapped.

The service schedule recommends that the toothed belt only needs to be checked every 60000km (37,000 miles) and only replaced at 180,000km ( 111,000miles)!!!!!!!!

The garage owner, who is my wife's god father, took the precaution of buying a whole kit rather than just the belt as the water pump is connected and a pain to replace at a later date.

When I came to pick the car up, I was shown a box of bits. I have to say that the belt was still in excellent condition (Well done SEAT) BUT the ancillaries were not (Not well done SEAT)
The original water pump had a plastic impeller, which had at least two blades broken that were hanging off. The rest of the plastic was cracked and very tired looking. The tensioning Ram has a small wheel about 1 inch across which must spin at massive rpm; the bearings on this had failed and were grinding and rough when spun. The other wheel which has tension applied by the ram also had it bearings worn out.

All of this and the car has only done 68,000 miles so as far as I was concerned this was done early!!

The cam belt kit consists of new Belt, Ram, Pulley and water pump (with brass impeller). The full kit only costs £50 extra over the belt only, and did not incur any more labour as they are all done with the belt off.

Total cost including service was only £310.

My advice to anyone out there is, get the whole kit done, not just the belt. God knows what state the other bits would have been in if I had waited until the belt showed signs of wear. In any case there was no way the pump would have lasted until then.

You have been warned!

[Sunburn]

is the cam belt same as the toothed belt?

[kez]

yep.

[longman]

This topic has been discussed quite a lot and with a lot of "um" "er" in terms of when to change and what to change.

This is proof that its worth changing at 60K whatever, regardless of how the belt looks.

You were lucky mate. I will be doing mine in March too.

[cordobabrendy]

£310 from your wifes godfather, jesus he really was criminal, Marlon Brando would be proud. A bloke I didnt even know running a reputable garage charged me 100 labour for the belt and pump swap. Changing the oil and other service details wouldnt have cost that much put together.

[Sunburn]

looking at my service history (only had car little over a week), the cam belt / toothed belt has been replaced every 10k on my car! isnt that excessive? now at 74k

[skahigh]

Originally Posted by Sunburn

looking at my service history (only had car little over a week), the cam belt / toothed belt has been replaced every 10k on my car! isnt that excessive? now at 74k

are you SURE you are reading your service history right? That would imply that it was changed at EVERY service which is quite frankly laughable.

Just because the item has a tick against it does not neccessarily mean the item was changed. Most garages will tick items in the service sheet even if they were not checked because that item is not a part of the service plan.

You can never really just go by the ticks, you need the receipts/mechanics reports to be sure what has been done.

[Sunburn]

Yeah your probally right, mis-reading the service book, however if this is the case the dealer told me a lie when he said the cam-belt had been done. Best check when i get home. would i have grounds to retrun to the dealer and request they do it foc?

[kez]

if you can prove they said it had been done, and it hasn't - yes.