I was at the Toyota Dealer today as my car was making a noise. I knew it was a belt of some sort. The service person told me that I needed a belt ($150) and that my tenisioner was leaking ($400). I told him to change the belt but I would check on the tensioner elsewhere.
I called another garage and they told me that tensioners don't leak! Is this true or is there something else I should look out for.
Thanks, Reilly
What is the model year, model, engine, and mileage on your car?
A $150 belt sounds like a timing belt, many of which are tensioned by a hydraulic tensioner. The other garage obviously does not know much about cars and should be avoided. If it is the timing belt and the tensioner is leaking, then changing the tensioner at the same time as the timing belt will add a half-hour or hour of labor to the cost, while changing the tensioner on another trip will duplicate most of the labor so you will pay anywhere from 3 to 5 hours of labor.
What year, cylinders? Automatic drive belt tensioners (for AC/PS belts for example), are spring tensioned and do not leak.
Hydraulic tensioners, used on V6 engines, cost about $60-90 online. Two idler pulleys about $50 online. V6 timing belt costs over $270 to change, so you either got a drive belt change or a timing belt change for the 4-cyl which doesn't use the hydraulic timing tensioner.
snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote:
Ray,
I don't think it was the timing belt. The charge on changing the belt was $150. $50 for the belt, $88 for the labor and the rest taxes and whatnot.
I called the other garage again and the guy did, indeed, say he was wrong and that with the 2003 Toyota Corolla, there is a hydraulic part on the tensioner. The price at the other garage for changing the tensioner is $230 and not $398.
Because I know so little about cars, I just can't help feeling ripped off all the time. Every time I turn around with this car, I'm taking it somewhere to take care of some noise it makes. Very very frustrating.
Thanks for your help.
Ray O wrote:
$50 for the belt and about 1 hour's labor (depending on where you are) sounds a little high but in the ballpark for an accessory drive belt.
The accessory drive belt tensioner and about an hour and a half's labor sounds about right. Having the tensioner done separately does duplicate some labor.
Some dealers hold customer "clinics" where service department personnel give lessons on car maintenance basics - what is needed when, what some of the major parts are, etc. I doubt if they would point out every part on the car since few people who are not avid car enthusiasts would remember.
Another possibility is to take an evening continuing education course at a local community college or high school. In the area where I live, the high school district offers a couple of auto shop classes. Most of the time, they will let you do some minor repairs during the hands-on portion of the class.
Yeah, I always felt like a total ass for what the dealer I worked for charged people for changing belts on newer 4cyl Camrys & Corollas, considering it takes less than 5 mins. That was one of the things I was always happy to show customers how to do themselves. Peoples faces would light up when they realize that there is still stuff they can do on newer cars without thousands in equipment.
I don't really know if the one on my 95 Geo Prizm was a spring or hydraulic, but I know it was on it's way out before I changed my timing belt. The car has recently started to run a little rougher and when I took that top cover off of the engine over the belt the belt felt way loose.
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