A friend is looking a list of cars (up to 10 years old) that don't use a cam belt (probably because they use a timing chain instead).
Basically he is fed up with paying for regular cam belt changes.
I can start the list with the Nissan Primera 2ltr (timing chain)
Thanks for any suggestions.
John.
"John Smith" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
He's an over-reacting drama queen. A cambelt once every 40 to 60k miles is a very small part of the cost of running a car.
...and as some now have a change interval of 10 years/100K miles, it's even less of a problem.
Chris
Chains still fail and are more expensive to change than cambelts. Personally unless there is a full service history with the car, I'd not buy one with a chain as you don't know if the oil has been changed regularly and how long they and the tensioners last depends heavily on regular oil changes. At least with a car with a cambelt then with the lack of any service history to indicate a change, you can usually either work out from the mileage if its going to need doing or easily visually inspect it yourself, something that a chain isn't going to allow.
Mondeo, £160 for full kit (belt, pulley, tensioner) incl labour. Even if you change it early at 60k miles, it still works out at under three THOUSANDTHS of a penny (0.002666ppm to be exact) per mile in running costs for the cambelt.
If I live long enough I will take your advice and have my Mondeo belt changed early at 60,000, in about 12 years time. I'll be 88, the car will be 17. ;-)
Mine is in for 32,000 mile service on Monday, and they quoted £224 for new pads all round. I glanced at the discs when I was having new tyres fitted recently and there was a slight lip at the edge of the disc of 1 or 2 mm.
Should I refuse if they say new discs are required?
What a complete f****it.
new discs for that are about thirty quid a pair and usually wear out in about 40,000 miles. Any noticeable lip is enough to advise changing them, these days the bits are so cheap it is not worth leaving half the job undone.
SR20 suffer from VTC rattle. Going to cost more than a few cam belt changes to fix.
They may still make engines with spray bar top end lubrication (SR20 again).
The recommended time to change the cam belt is both a mileage figure and an age figure, whichever comes first, mostly fords at 60,000 would have the belt changed at 6 years, check with the dealer for your exact model or tell us and we'll check.
What is the manufacturers tolerance on the discs? Modern pads are extremely abrasive since they did away with asbestos. Sadly it means changing the discs quite often.
THe discs are cheaper than the pads & by the time you've got the pads ou= t =
then theextra times negligible. Thereagain the rear pads last for ever.
Focus & Mondeo years are 10 years/100K miles.
Chris
My SAAB (GM) 900 2.3 on eBay ? It's 14 years old, but it's only on 99p ATM +ADs-)
(seriously though, the SAAB 2.3 engine in the 9-3 and 9-5 has chain driven cams)
£224 ..Just for pads ?? If you are not changing the discs then do it yourself ....You'd be crazy to pay that and discs are surely not expensive either .
not if it is a diesel mondeo, early ones are every three years IIRC
Ah yes; that's pre '99; chain after that.
Chris
I work out he says it is 5 years old, so it must be a petrol with a belt, so yes 10 years, but I would not leave it till 17 years !!! I know they still look good at 12 years, but 17?
Usenet Nutter wrote on 19/01/2010 :
At 88 years of age 8-o
I remember the 100,000 miles in the spec when I bought it, but as I'm only averaging around 5000 p.a. the age comes into it.
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