Hi all i am looking for an answer on the above. I recently had an MOT done on my saxo, and i was told by the mechanic that i would need a new timing belt, but he would have to charge me =A3250 as he needed to take the engine out to change it? I found this hard to believe so all answers would be apprieciated
Fergus
FergG (fergus snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
You won't *need* a new cambelt for the MOT, however, a new cambelt every now and then is a VERY good idea. If it breaks things get very expensive.
The diesel MOT involves holding the engine on the rev limiter for the smoke test
While I think there may be a little bit of wrong-end-of-stick-taking, if you don't know when it was last changed, your mechanic is talking a lot of sense.
The engine won't need to come out to do it - but £250 sounds too cheap for that anyway.
A belt's about £20 and the tensioner kit (does the Paxo Diseasel need that doing? I dunno. Never a bad idea for the little extra money) is £40. If the water pump's even remotely iffy, it's a very good time to do that too - another £20 - so that's £60-80 just in bits.
Which is about what the car'll be worth if the belt snaps...
Why did he say it needed a cam belt? Fair enough if it's done 70k without a change (or whatever the relevant mileage is) but without a reason then he may be trying it on.
I haven't any experience of the Saxo but I guess it would be a similar engine to the AX or Pug 106 maybe? You can get a cambelt change for those round here for about £100 to £120. £120 was a main dealer price too, £95 from my local specialist. Even my diesel Xantia with aircon etc was only £120 from the specialist (£350 from Citroen however).
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