New cam belt - rattles when cold

not normal. could be loose belt, damaged wheel, damaged belt, piece of old belt or anything. just take it back. try not to drive it in the meantime, just in case.

mrcheerful

As an update, the car went back to the Toyota dealership yesterday (Benfield Toyota Wakefield). They rang me at 5pm yesterday and said they'll have to keep it another day. They rang up this morning and they said they know what the problem is: it's the tensioner. And they want a further £100+ for the part (they said they weren't going to charge labour). I said that I wasn't happy as the tensioner was fine before the cam belt change (which cost £275). I'm now awaiting a call from their manager....................................................

I did a quick ring of a few Toyota dealers in Yorkshire (all prices include VAT): Monty's of Sheffield: £46.08 West Riding Huddersfield: £83 Benfield Toyota Leeds (yes, same company, different branch): £47 Pentagon Rotherham: £44.70 And those prices will also include a nice little profit for the dealer.

So, am I right in assuming that they broke the tensioner? They obviously put my car back together with it broke.

Not happy. Whatever happens now this looks to be like a six day cam belt change. Useless!!

They do tend to die just after you've changed the belt.

The message from "Johnny" contains these words:

Possibly not. The tensioner would have been under slightly lower tension with the old belt. The new one would have been tighter, for a while at least, and that may have finished off a part that was close to retirement anyway.

I'd be glad to have changed it, personally.

Guy King ( snipped-for-privacy@zetnet.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Personally, I think I'd be questioning why it wasn't changed as a matter of course.

Oh, and to the OP - be thankful it didn't collapse completely, allowing the belt to jump teeth and make nasty expensive noises...

The message from Adrian contains these words:

Probably not included in the standard service and the garage haven't the wit to offer it. If I were a garage I'd be asking people if they wanted it changed and ask 'em to sign the receipt to say they declined the offer just to stop this sort of silliness.

Guy King ( snipped-for-privacy@zetnet.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

At least they've offered to do it with FOC labour.

Doesn't sound anything like a broken tensioner to me. Sounds like a slack cambelt that wasn't adjusted right when it was fitted. As the engine warms up it expands, the belt gets tighter and stops rattling. A failed tensioner bearing makes a noise all the time and it gets worse as the engine gets hot.

I'd be fairly suspicious of this dealer, especially given the price quoted. I'd also insist on having the 'broken' tensioner returned to me which any garage is obliged to do as the used parts remain the customer's property.

Well the noise was apparent as soon as I started the car after the cambelt change - so it's not as if it broke later on.

The manager eventually rang me, and they're fitting the tensioner all for free - of course they shouldn't have put my car back together with it broke in the first place, and it did work fine before.

My apologies, it'll actually end up as 5 working days to get the cam belt sorted from start to finish, not 6.

Still, at least they've dropped their "and we want £100 more from you" line. But I certainly won't be taking my car there again, nor will I be recommending them either.

That's because it doesn't need a tensioner. It just needed the belt fitting properly in the first place per my previous post. No way would a garage just drop £100 that easily if they genuinely thought they were in the right.

The message from Adrian contains these words:

Well, sort of. They bumped up the price of the part to cover the labour they "weren't" charging.

Thanks for all the replies (most of which I've had to read in GoogleGroups thanks to my s**te ISP Tiscali - who's newserver is missing most of the posts (in almost every newsgroup I'm subscribed to)).

But unfortunately this is STILL ongoing.

Well, they are replacing the tensioner (for free) so I assume that something is up with it. But they rang me to tell me that they're having trouble with some bolts around the tensioner and can they keep my car until tomorrow (like yeah, what choice do I have considering the engine is hanging out of it?).

So, six days to do a cam belt change - is that a record ?

Usually they would have had to loosen the bolts in order to "tension" the new belt would they not? Unless the tension is set with the waterpump but then I guess the "tensioner" would be called an idler wheel? Anyway, sounds like they have snapped something to me, if they are having trouble with some bolts I don't see why they still won't have trouble with them tomorrow!

Will