ahmett said:

I'll check mine out. Mine is now 2 years old and 50,000 km. I can see how the belt may be a bit worn out, but i think changing the belt and water pump if it looks ok a bit premature on a 2 year old car?

My biggest concern is how rubbish my spark plugs are after only 20,000 km! What kind of cheap NGK's did they put on my car?

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As Jrkitching has said plenty of times, its not the plugs fault, it's the ethanol in the fuel, I've done about 7 or 8 k miles since my last service in April or May and I can feel that there's been a drop in performance.

The thing is that with the water pump it's a cheap part (under £30) so you might as well do it while you're there. A water pump failure can cause issues as well

http://www.alfaowner.com/Forum/engi...er-pump-failure-causing-cam-belt-to-fail.html

For the sake of £30 when the belt is off I'd do it. If the water pump does fail then it's all the labour to get the belt off again, the cost of the belt and then the cost of the water pump. Do it once and do it properly.

Most Easterly Pandas said:

Where out of interest?

The same job, without the water pump, cost me £165, inc parts, on a Stilo with the same engine. It was in July 2009 mind, but thats a big price difference.

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That was from Kwikfit and HiQ.
Coming to think about it, I think the price was £300 (the £350 was for the folks C4)

Deep breath and prepare myself for the overkill comments......

I change my 1.4 cambelt and bits a lot. It's averaging out at about once every 12k miles but that'll slow a bit this year as the Elise has been the primary wheels this summer.

Track days take a lot out of the car. Mine also regularly does fast motorway work and country lanes thrashing.

In other words I'm using it well outside the sexy shopping trolley design envelope Fiat had in mind for it. I find changing cambelts at 10-12k miles and oil every 4-5k miles is much easier than replacing engines.

My pumps have been done once at about 50k miles. I did the lot. It was eye wateringly expensive. I can't remember figures off hand but it hurt. Pushing £500ish at the time all up inc labour from an independent. I don't want to do it again for a while. All the bits are in crap to reach places. You have to move parts of the car into another dimension to get access to stuff in the 500's bay.

Your mileage, as the phrase goes, may vary.

jnoiles said:

Deep breath and prepare myself for the overkill comments......

I change my 1.4 cambelt and bits a lot. It's averaging out at about once every 12k miles but that'll slow a bit this year as the Elise has been the primary wheels this summer.

Track days take a lot out of the car. Mine also regularly does fast motorway work and country lanes thrashing.

In other words I'm using it well outside the sexy shopping trolley design envelope Fiat had in mind for it. I find changing cambelts at 10-12k miles and oil every 4-5k miles is much easier than replacing engines.

Your mileage, as the phrase goes, may vary.

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Overkill!

306maxi said:

Overkill!

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So 36k or 36 months it is then?

jnoiles said:

Deep breath and prepare myself for the overkill comments......

I change my 1.4 cambelt and bits a lot. It's averaging out at about once every 12k miles but that'll slow a bit this year as the Elise has been the primary wheels this summer.

Track days take a lot out of the car. Mine also regularly does fast motorway work and country lanes thrashing.

In other words I'm using it well outside the sexy shopping trolley design envelope Fiat had in mind for it. I find changing cambelts at 10-12k miles and oil every 4-5k miles is much easier than replacing engines.

My pumps have been done once at about 50k miles. I did the lot. It was eye wateringly expensive. I can't remember figures off hand but it hurt. Pushing £500ish at the time all up inc labour from an independent. I don't want to do it again for a while. All the bits are in crap to reach places. You have to move parts of the car into another dimension to get access to stuff in the 500's bay.

Your mileage, as the phrase goes, may vary.

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Wow u are making me feel very bad!

I shall be replacing mine when it gets to six years old (probably about 50,000km). I haven't heard of or seen belt failures on this engine (assuming it is almost identical to the 1242cc 16V Mk2 Punto Sporting motor). The cambelt run is simple (without idlers and with only one tensioner) and the locking tools are two pins that screw into the front and back of the cylinder head. The twin cams are geared together so there is no risk of mistiming one cam against the other (only one cam pulley to time up).

I had a Punto Sporting and I changed the cambelt with no special tools, since I used the Haynes suggestion of using several rods to measure the piston heights. The engine is timed with all four pistons halfway down the bores.

I think £350 is too high for this cambelt change (even if a water pump is included) - that's the price I would expect to pay for a quad-cam Alfa V6, whereas the 16v FIRE is effectively like a single-cam engine due to the geared drive between the twin cams that I mentioned above.

But I would recommend getting the correct locking pins - they have a machined shoulder - I got by with Allen keys or something similar but it wasn't as 'definite' as it could have been. I spent extra time re-checking that wouldn't have been needed with the proper tools.

I know someone driving to work each day in a Punto Sporting at ten years old with 160,000km on the clock - and yes, it's on the original cambelt. I suggested that I should change it for him...

-Alex

Hello Forum ... been a while.

I recently had my 500 serviced by a non-Fiat garage who advised me that the timing belt (cam belt) needs changing at 36k miles.

Looking at my manual - it seems to state "irrespetive of mileage, the timing belt should be changed every 4 years (cold climate, hard driving etc) or every 5 years otherwise"

This is conflicting with the comments on this forum. So does anyone have any advice?

YouKnowWho said:

Hello Forum ... been a while.

I recently had my 500 serviced by a non-Fiat garage who advised me that the timing belt (cam belt) needs changing at 36k miles.

Looking at my manual - it seems to state "irrespetive of mileage, the timing belt should be changed every 4 years (cold climate, hard driving etc) or every 5 years otherwise"

This is conflicting with the comments on this forum. So does anyone have any advice?

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Which engine?

306maxi said:

Which engine?

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1.2 Petrol

YouKnowWho said:

1.2 Petrol

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Read the thread! The 1.2 is a non-interference engine, if the belt breaks the car will lose power and roll to a stop with no damage to the engine. Change it when Fiat advise to change it.

306maxi said:

Read the thread! The 1.2 is a non-interference engine, if the belt breaks the car will lose power and roll to a stop with no damage to the engine. Change it when Fiat advise to change it.

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Thanks but it was a little unclear so double checking. If that's ok with you of course.

You are still a bit of a twit really aren't you.

Anyway - thanks for the (sarcastic) reply

YouKnowWho said:

Thanks but it was a little unclear so double checking. If that's ok with you of course.

You are still a bit of a twit really aren't you.

Anyway - thanks for the (sarcastic) reply

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Well, I don't really remember you, but I wonder if you were as pigheaded, lazy and ungrateful before....

306maxi said:

Yup. On a 1.2 you could take the view that you will just wait till it snaps and replace it when it goes. Timing belts do tend to last a while so I'm going to leave mine till the mileage/time is up and then probably leave it till the next service after that. I'm all for overservicing a car, but there's no real need to change the belts early on a non-interference engine

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306maxi said:

Non-interference engine means that if the cambelt snaps then the valves and pistons can't meet. Interference engine means that if it breaks they can meet and much smashing of top ends can occur.

Basically in a non-interference engine the valves and pistons never occupy the space that the other occupies. So the valve then full opens it doesn't occupy the space that the piston would at top dead centre

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FireballXL5man said:

So from the above post, am I right in assuming the 1.2 8v is a non-interference engine, which if the cam belt breaks will not damage the engine?

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306maxi said:

Correctamundo

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Work got their money out of this belt



(fortunately not on an engine but the machine went out of sync a "bit")



that belt must be 8x the size of the 500 belt and probably takes far more HP (you should see the size of the motor)

306maxi said:

Well, I don't really remember you, but I wonder if you were as pigheaded, lazy and ungrateful before....

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Haha - that's what I remember - every discussion with you going the same way - degenerating into your sarcastic and rude comments.

how about trying to be nice and less of a muppet? you turned a simple question from someone you don't know into an insult.

YouKnowWho said:

how about trying to be nice and less of a muppet? you turned a simple question from someone you don't know into an insult.

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Or perhaps he had already answered a question more than once like a lot of others previously in the thread and doesn't like being a worn out record :idea:

Just because you've been very narrow minded and read what Maxi has said as being offensive and rude doesn't mean it was intended that way. Now who's made a mountain out of a mole hill

Most Easterly Pandas said:

Or perhaps he had already answered a question more than once like a lot of others previously in the thread and doesn't like being a worn out record :idea:

Just because you've been very narrow minded and read what Maxi has said as being offensive and rude doesn't mean it was intended that way. Now who's made a mountain out of a mole hill

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MEP, he's right, I get my self esteem from insulting people on cam belt change threads on Fiatforum.......

The mind boggles really, the question was answered already in the thread (regardless of whether he had a 1.2 or 1.4. MEP answered on the 1.4 side and I answered on the 1.2 side) but hey ho someone came in who didn't read the thread fully and I answered it again and still he has a cry about it......

YouKnowWho said:

Haha - that's what I remember - every discussion with you going the same way - degenerating into your sarcastic and rude comments.

how about trying to be nice and less of a muppet? you turned a simple question from someone you don't know into an insult.

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How about reading the thread and not taking every little comment as an attack?

Sometimes as a frequent contributor on this forum you feel a little used by people who aren't polite enough to read the thread they're posting in (winter tyre thread aside!!!!) and who act in a most hostile manner when faced with anything but a clear answer and nothing in addition to the answer

Hi, I have a 2007 Grande Punto 1.4. I had belt replaced at 59k (kms). Just hit 71 and it snapped. Is a 1.4 8v safe or not? Thanks.

Fight! Fight! Fight!