Alfas

Muppet. Sorry, but going over the 72k interval is just asking for trouble.

Erm, tiptronic style slushomatic or Selespeed flappy paddle type of thing?

It's important, because the slushbox is a 2.5 V6 which is a bit 'HFM!?' to fix, and the flappy paddle type is a 2.0 4-pot, which is marginally less 'HFM' to fix.

Depending on the age and condition, either could be enough to make it uneconomical to repair.

By 1k?

I doubt he can afford the insurance on the V6, so I expect it'll be the 2.0 one. But it's still a new valves, head, etc job I take it.

Yes, given the reputation of that lump for snapping the belts early.

At least, yes. Probably best looking for a used lump, to be honest.

The only thing about either route is that the kind of person who doesn't change the belt in time is also the kind of person who doesn't check the oil level frequently....... so, if buying used you have to hear the lump running, if rebuilding his, it'll be worth checking out the bottom end first.

Alfa have been recommneding 36k belt change intervals for at least 2 years now!!

Tim..

When it's common knowledge to change them at not too much over half that, then yes.

Though I'd blame Alfa for not changing the official recommendation down to something like 48k, which they really should.

-- "For want of the price of tea and a slice, the old man died."

They have done now. However, this only helps those still using the main dealer network. They haven't tried to contact owners who don't use main dealers.

Which are of absolutely no concern of Alfas so why would they?

Renault changed the interval from 70ish to 50ish for all its cars a few years back after a few incidents.

I dunno - surely it's any car owner's right to get it serviced where they like, so why shouldn't they be kept informed when servicing specifications change?

-- "For want of the price of tea and a slice, the old man died."

Especially when it's something so vital as the cam-belt interval and it has been *halved*.

specifications

Though you have got to see it from the manufacturer's point of view as well - how are they to keep in touch with all the owners of vehicles made by them? I very much doubt that the DVLA would be allowed to give them addresses - each owner would have to register with the relevant manufacturer (and caveat emptor for people buying cars from dead manufacturers!) to receive updates.

Though it would help a *lot* if a decent publicity campaign by VOSA happened to make people aware that it's really quite worthwhile in registering for such a service, even if there was a small admin charge to "subscribe", so to speak.

-- "For want of the price of tea and a slice, the old man died."

A mate had a Mk3 escort CVH engine belt go at 39k when ford recommended

They can have that info. for safety related recalls.

I would argue that a cambelt is a critial safety item, but I doubt it falls into that category officially.

I did my Scrote on 30k intervals. Wasn't worth the risk of running it any longer.

This basically shows that the manufacturers are just guessing with their intervals though, doesnt it. I mean if Alfa can give the interval as 72k and then halve it to 36, they obviously didn't have much of an idea of how long it was actually going to last.

Yeah, although safety related recalls are often just for a specific range of chassis numbers or something like that. Cars that were manufactured at a certain location on a specified date range where some parts used were found to be defective afterwards. Plus they tend to be caught fairly quickly so it's usually people who've bought the car from new in the last year or so (although cars do change hands within the 1st year of their life, so they'd have to go to the DVLA for the owners of those that had).

Not like a cambelt which affects cars much later in their life, and pretty much every car with that particular engine, which probably had a manufacturing run of 5 years or more. Plus the vastly differing rate at which people put miles on their cars, etc.

So about the the life of a cvh then?

James

Why are some cars more prone to failure than others - is it the belt itself or the precision of the rest of the cam drive?

My volvo was changed at 102 as recommended, and the Rover 414 at 90k.

Pretty much. AFAIK they probably do some sort of testing based on knowledge of the properties of materials, but often get their sums way out and probably don't take into account shiteness of externally produced components whose failure causes failure of something else (like a waterpump causing a cambelt to fail), and probably also don't take into account external factors like grit 'n' s*it that get into things like bearings and such like.

To start with, it's all about putting the highest number they reckon that, on average, they'll get away with, to win fleet sales as a result of being able to claim lower running costs, but as time goes on, it's basically a numbers game - if lots are failing at 60k, with the lowest mileage failure being 56k, then they'll reduce the interval to something like 48k. Then one fails at 47k, and they'll think "s*it, don't want to pay out for too many more" and reduce it to 36k to be on the safe side.

Or something.

-- "For want of the price of tea and a slice, the old man died."

They're not guessing, they pare down the servicing schedule to the bare minimum during the design stage of a new car so the maintenance costs per mile are the absolute minimum, then it compares favourably to the other cars of the same class. All so the costs look good to the fleet buyers..

Once they've been out in the "real world" for a couple of years it becomes obvious that the official maintenance schedule is woefully inadequate, so change it. By this time the fleets have made their orders and the accountants are happy.

Or am I being bitter and twisted to say nothing of paranoid ? ;)