Was quoted a grand to get my 98 legacy's cambelt done, seems a lot doesn't it?
franc123,
Feb 7, 9:56am
Depends on what motor is in it and what they are replacing and where the parts come from. On a quad cam with a full oil seal and water pump replacement along with tensioners and idlers and the two external drive belts then you can easily be into the 8-900+gst mark.
kcc55a,
Feb 7, 10:00am
Been looking at Alfa 156's for a friend recently. Been shocked to see some have done 180Kms and only had one cambelt change. Manufacturer recommends every 60,000K
mugenb20b,
Feb 7, 10:16am
Really? A lot of Alfa's cambelts break before they are due.
franc123,
Feb 7, 10:16am
That's because on some of those POS its an engine out job to change it, they're up for sale before their luck runs out.
msigg,
Feb 7, 10:20am
Yes on an alfa it's very risky to go past the recommended, this puts more alfa of the road than anything else.
krank72,
Feb 7, 10:35am
Yeah, it's done 70'000 since a rebuild, which is when I bought it. I think they recommend replacement at 100. All the forums I've looked at recommend getting the water pump and tensioners etc done as well, I guess thats why it seems pricey to replace a hundred dollar belt.
robotnik,
Feb 7, 10:35am
That is probably about right if it includes cambelt, tensioners, idler, water pump, etc. You could probably save a bit and just get the belt done though, which might be okay on a lowish mileage car. Usually the cheap cambelt deals are just for a change of the belt.
thejazzpianoma,
Feb 7, 11:23am
Of even more concern sometimes is the age limit, 3 years for a twin spark Alfa. Some are several times that, that's why it's not unusual to see one on here with a grenaded engine.
Remember though, that's only twin spark and 2.0 JTS engines. V6's. older and newer engines, diesels etc have different intervals, generally longer.
bjmh,
Feb 7, 12:07pm
the problem with just doing a belt,is a couple of months down the track the water-pump craps out. so then the owner abuses the garage for not changing the waterpump,while they had access to it.Its a bit like car insurance . you may not need it. but !
franc123,
Feb 7, 12:16pm
Failure of hydraulic tensioners occurs as well if they aren't changed. The results of that are even less pretty. But all people see is the upfront costs and not the consequences of not doing things properly.
kazbanz,
Feb 7, 7:05pm
NO its not a lot. That price will include bearings,water pump both rocker cover gaskets and end seals. Just do the belt and listen to the tick,tick.tick as the time bomb winds down
kiwikid2005,
Feb 7, 8:38pm
Have to agree with those who've said no. my mum's partner has just had an old heap of a car (1994) which has just had a whole heap of work done (he spent more than it's worth getting it fixed, so god knows why he didn't just get rid of it, but anyway. ) The cam belt and water pump were both done. the cam belt kit cost $490. and that's before you get to replacing the pump and labour for both. so somewhere in the ball-park of 800 upwards wouldn't be a surprise I shouldn't think!
stevo2,
Feb 8, 5:08am
I have a question. Why do some cars have a longer cam belt life than others? Most Jappas are 100,000km or 10 years whereas Euros are a lot shorter like 60,000km or 3 years. Surely all cam belts must be similar strength - an aftermarket Gates corolla belt would be out of the same material as a Gates Alfa or VW belt so why does a Euro belt need replacing more often?
tamarillo,
Feb 8, 5:59am
Good question, seems to be an implementation thing of engines. Designers seem to be easy or hard on belts according to how many things it must run, tensioned, metals used in engine, and just good design. Just bought an Audi v6 which I see uses belt, but am used to bmw which mostly use chains. It's actually a big cost on older cars run on budgets.
clark20,
Feb 8, 6:11am
Also another question, do they break or loose their teeth?
reb53,
Feb 8, 6:35am
When my poor old Corolla let go, ( middle of nowhere with wife and kids on board. ), the belt simply snapped but it looked as though it had started to lose a few teeth at the break point first which probably caused a bump that stressed it and finished it off. That one , and a few others I know of have been pretty close to going the recommended interval, plus 50%.
franc123,
Feb 8, 8:44am
There are lots of reasons for differing timing belt life. Much of it comes down to engine and belt design, its length, width, tooth type and pitch, how many cams, valves and ancillaries it has to drive, and even how the belt is routed on the engine. How much stretch and therefore how much the relationship between the crank and cams angles can be changed before ECU's get upset is also a factor on cam position monitored engines. All long life belts tend to be shorter and wider and therefore stretch a bit less. When failure does occur its usually a result of a group of teeth shearing off where they have gone around the crank sprocket, its an unfortunate design necessity of a four stroke engine that the crank sprocket has to be half the size of the cam(s) sprockets, therefore the crank sprocket has less teeth in contact with it., made worse by the entire load of the system being on it. Outright snapping of the belt is less common and more likely if the belt has been contaminated with oil. As for short Euro belt life, best ask them why they still use outdated technology. From what I've seen in the case of Opel the belts are not as wide and for some reason still use a more square tooth profile which is more shear prone. The Japs started using wider belts with what's called semi round profile teeth years ago prior to shifting most of their engines to chain, but that's another story.
gmphil,
Feb 8, 9:00am
100,000 or 7 years to perish !
intrade,
Feb 8, 9:17am
ok i dont read all the posts , the thing is you need somone competent to service it and yes it will cost 1000$+ by the time you done it all fully and correctly. i was thinking my self that its hugely expensive untill i had to do one of these boxer subarus. And here is why it ends up costing so much there is 12 parts in a full timingbelt and seal kit. essentially you do 2 engines as you got a boxer means you got 2 banks to service of each 2 piston only as where a normal 4 cilinder corolla only has a single bank with all 4 piston on the one bank its not complicated to service but 12 components alone cost over 600$ trade price plus the engine coolant you need to exchange along and oil and filter service= 1200$ my customer had to pay me in the end and my labour rate was like 40$ back then.
mechnificent,
Feb 8, 9:55am
Well the subaru manual, and a lot of others, say to inspect the idlers, waterpump, and tensioner, for the usual things, play, roughness, noise, tightness heat etc. and if they are ok. use them again. It takes discrimination of course, something people aren't so familiar with these days, and experience, but there is no reason not to reuse a pump, tensioner or idler. They really aren't all that hard to monitor and repair in their own rights. All this do it right and do it once bullshit is a cover and an alibi for lack of competence in my opinion.
kazbanz,
Feb 8, 10:02am
Mech--I think you are missing the point. If it was a corolla or similar I would agree with you. Trouble is that the subbie flat fours are a beearch to work on and you end up doing the cambelt job again to replace the pump and/or the tensioner. So you do the whole job twice. This is a case of short term Vs long term thinking.If you only plan on keeping the car a couple of years then yea maybe but if you plan on keeping it awhile nahhh Id spend the money once and know its all done.
mechnificent,
Feb 8, 10:14am
I'm familiar with subarus Kaz. and they are not a bitch to work on. They are better than a lot of cars. Water pumps in my experience last somewhere near two-fifty thousand Kms. Tensioners if compressed carefully last near indefinitely, idlers get noisy before they collapse, water pumps get noisy or leak water. There are tests we can do, signs we can look for. Professionalism is using your discretion. it's what lawyers and accountants, and we would hope, professional mechanics do. Fitting parts indiscriminately is not professional, it's maximising profit and covering incompetence. and then the people that adopt this approach still don't accept fault when they leave a hose loose or a have made the bad diagnosis and the fault is still there.
kazbanz,
Feb 8, 10:20am
mech--sorry mon that's contrary to my experience. put it this way--given the state of the country re passing blame etc would YOU as a mechanic risk a car owner coming back to you with a blown up engine due to water pump failure on their 200000km Subaru? Keep in mind too -The OP says its a 98 kegacy so likely this is second belt. You just don't know if the pump was done last time or the tensioner etc
mechnificent,
Feb 8, 10:21am
I always inspect the parts Kaz. and make a decision.
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