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Technical Cam belt change

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Technical Cam belt change

The Panda Nut

The Panda Nut

Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
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I spent 4 years being told the belt is due for change at 72000 miles and then when I went to book it in, was told its 84000 is the change interval. Anyone know which, if either, is correct?

I decided to have a genuine Fiat kit fitted by a local garage as the dealer wanted £480+vat to do the job. Result is the job has been done at £314 all in, just two hours of time charged and I am very pleased with the quality of the work done. My garage engineer said he had had to replace several missing bolts and screws from the under-trays as well. As I already replaced some I noticed missing it makes me wonder what has been going on at service...

Notably the car starts much easier again and has improved performance too. This suggests the belt was overdue for a change, and I intend to do it again in 60000 miles to be sure its done when required rather than as stated by Fiat.
Has anyone else noticed any changes to their car after doing the belt??
 
As the cambelt is such an important component, i.e. failure usually means a useless engine, I think that it is imperative to have a look at it ,to see if there's cracks in it at least every 20k miles. Of course, they usually last longer, but .....
 
DavyP said:
As the cam belt is such an important component, i.e. failure usually means a useless engine, I think that it is imperative to have a look at it ,to see if there's cracks in it at least every 20k miles. Of course, they usually last longer, but .....
Click to expand...

I agree totally, it looked fine, but the improvement in performance and ease of starting suggest it should hve been done sooner. I think it will not be allowed to go more than 50K next time. The garage man said the majority of belts he sees are in perfect condition and he had only done his own after 15 years, so there is no reason to this. Many years ago I was told that no self respecting driver would ever leave a belt more than 30K. I suppose materials have impro ed a lot since then. I know I feel easier now the job is done.
 
The improvement in starting and performance suggests to me the previous timing belt was incorrectly fitted .
I cannot think how an aging timing belt can possibly affect starting and performance, unless it was so poorly fitted initially that there was enough slack in the belt that the timing jumped away from the correct position.
Or possibly your garage did other work while doing the belt a service perhaps?
 
I changed mine on 100k km. It was done by a Fiat dealership with genuine parts. Took it back to the dealership on the next day because of a whining noise and they replaced the water pump again. I could still hear a faint whining noise when the car was warmed up, but being assured by the garage that this is normal ignored it.

After 50k km the noise got worse, especially on cold days, but not the whine noise but sort of a belt noise, intermittent, like the belt was sliding against something.

I removed the plastic covers to have a look and everything was covered with red dust, I figured something is being grinded. Took it to the dealership again and this time they replaced the tensioner. Everything else is said to be OK, but now I get the faint whining noise again whenever the car is warmed up. As best as I can tell it is coming from the drive shaft, where the belt is rubbing on the outer side of the shaft. You can hear it clearly if you rotate the shaft by hand, but the garage thinks this is normal.

So not quite happy with the dealership and especially the genuine spare parts.
 
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Every 4 years it should be replaced as stated in every Fiat service schedule regardless of km. Took me 3 hours to change. Needless to say I replaced auxiliary tensioner which was seized and water pump regardless of age as the water pump runs off the timing belt. Not difficult to do provided you have proper cam lock tools. Having said that the car in question has only 58000 km and is 10 years old. Never had a belt change in its life. Belt looked fine but upon closer inspection the steel belts were frayed and it had had its day.
So it's possible to get more than 4 years but at what risk?
 
Seagate said:
I changed mine on 100k km. It was done by a Fiat dealership with genuine parts. Took it back to the dealership on the next day because of a whining noise and they replaced the water pump again. I could still hear a faint whining noise when the car was warmed up, but being assured by the garage that this is normal ignored it.

After 50k km the noise got worse, especially on cold days, but not the whine noise but sort of a belt noise, intermittent, like the belt was sliding against something.

I removed the plastic covers to have a look and everything was covered with red dust, I figured something is being grinded. Took it to the dealership again and this time they replaced the tensioner. Everything else is said to be OK, but now I get the faint whining noise again whenever the car is warmed up. As best as I can tell it is coming from the drive shaft, where the belt is rubbing on the outer side of the shaft. You can hear it clearly if you rotate the shaft by hand, but the garage thinks this is normal.

So not quite happy with the dealership and especially the genuine spare parts.
Click to expand...



Fu*king dealers.
 
124spiderman said:
Fu*king dealers.
Click to expand...

Yeah. Basically after the belt kit change, which was BTW expensive (>600€), I have always had some noise from the engine. Driving the car back to get it fixed has proved fruitless. What happens is that I am left without my car for at least 2 days and they just randomly change some part.

In a month or so I will have some time off work and I will attempt to replace the whole kit myself. I already did it on my Panda and after 2 years it's still working fine. The whole SKF kit costs just ~110€ so its peanuts compared to dealer prices. Tensioner replacement alone cost me 160€...
 
jackwhoo said:
The improvement in starting and performance suggests to me the previous timing belt was incorrectly fitted .
I cannot think how an aging timing belt can possibly affect starting and performance, unless it was so poorly fitted initially that there was enough slack in the belt that the timing jumped away from the correct position.
Or possibly your garage did other work while doing the belt a service perhaps?
Click to expand...

No other work done. I had a company Vectra that also improved dramatically after the belt was done. I think it suggests a degree of stretch and that the belt was on borrowed time. The Vectra belt was changed at a similarly high mileage (85K) The car drove fine before the change it was just notably better after. I don't think I will leave it this long again before doing it. My daughters car has been done every 30K since new 14 years ago and I feel more comfortable with that interval. Fiat in Norwich did say if the car was serviced by them on time, and the belt went before its due mileage that Fiat would pay. I wouldn't like to rely on that though.
 
124spiderman said:
Fu*king dealers.
Click to expand...

My dealer without prompting said - as I would expect - they change the belt and all tensioners and the water pump unless I specifically refused this as they regarded all these parts as part of the normal basic change of the belt. I cannot overstate my surprise that any main dealer would do anything less. If you take the engine apart to change the belt common sense says do everything else that lurks behind the covers that might fail. I learned this the hard way with a Renault whne that dealer failed to change all the parts instructed.
 
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