There goes the fridge money, campervan money, or any money, all the money Had our car nearly a year, so just enquiring about a basic service, only to be told its cambelt time. Its on 87k. When we bought it last year at 75k miles we checked about cambelt interval, it was 140k. Great we thought, no worries there then. But Volvo decided late last year to almost half the interval, so we are now due a cambelt change. If we don't do it we invalidate the 5 yr warranty. Why the hell would you suddenly half a cambelt replacement mileage??? Absolutely marvellous
they must have had a few snap. hope it's not too much money! Our alfa is 2 years old and it's clutch decided to let go on the M4. one side of the clutch completley burnt out, other side was perfect. Alfa tried to claim that it had been driven hard. it turned out to be the clutch release / slave cylinder which sprung a leak. all replaced on warranty. Good job too, replacing the clutch and DMF was quoted at £1800!!! I think we will be selling it soon
Also bear in mind it doesn't actually have to be done at the main dealer to maintain the warranty. It can be done somewhere else as long as it's done in accordance with the manufacturers spec. Could save a few bob!
Yeah but its a 4 yr old motor, how many modern cars have a cambelt interval of 85000 miles? Ridiculous. I know it doesn't have to be done at a main dealer, but its still at least the best part of 500 quid , if not more, once you factor in the normal service to. For something that 6 months ago, we didn't need to do for another 5 yrs. Had a big payout last month for something( not car related), just when you think you got some breathing space, boom there goes another wedge
The recommended cambelt intervals seems to vary wildly between vehicles. Some are over 100k yet our old Alfa was only 30k! I'm sure the manufacturers just make it up
i would have thought 85k or 4 years was about average for a cam belt ......most modern cars are going away from belts back to chains
The cambelt change interval for my Seat Ibiza is 40,000 miles or 4 years, whichever comes first. When I bought it at 9 years old it had never had one done, but was only on 32,000 miles. I drove it veeeeeeeery carefully to the garage to get it done as soon as I bought it.
Chains have their problems too. Wrong sort of oil, infrequent oil changes, all has an effect upon the life of a timing chain. A lot of people don't service their car often enough (people sometimes don't 'get' preventative maintenance) and then blame a "rubbish car" when the timing chain stretches.
Nah, what you want is a 1980's VW Polo. Some of them had non-interference engines. Run it until cambelt snaps, line it all back up, fit new belt, carry on driving.
Cam belt pulley went on my old car (lovely 1999 V40 that I'd owned for 10 years and was probably only worth £500) ...cost me best part of £900 to replace all the bent and buggered valves! Was worth it though, bloody lovely car that I would've happily driven for another 10 years .... had I not cracked the engine last year and that was that Crazy that Volvo have magically just halved the interval time though. I bet dealer prices are a bit steeper than I pay at my local 'volvo specialist' too, but not sure how warrantys work when it's not an official place. He's a good bloke though if you're interested @volkswombat
