Another cambelt question

[SpKM3]

Hi

I wonder if you knowledgeable guys could help me.

I have a 98 1.8t AGU engine.

Last night the engine overheated and coolant and steam were emitting form the overflow. Having read up on this I am sure the water pump has gone, I need to get the cambelt and thermostat replaced too.

A local garage has quoted me £125 for labour only and £200 if he supplies the parts, labour seems reasonable but the parts seem a tad expensive, so I want to source my own parts and am looking at VW spares site. My question is, in addition to a cambelt kit and waterpump, is it necessary to order a v belt and a cambelt tensioner damper and a v belt tensioner?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[Nilz]

If you go to Euro Car Parts, they do a kit with everything including the damper and tensioners....for not too much money.

The waterpump will be seperate, but will need to be done at the same time.

Reality wise though, the price isnt that bad, I had mine done recently at a specialist and it was about the same money, that was cambelt, waterpump,tensioners and damper as well....

 

[666markyboy]

£200 with parts included is very cheap... for that i doubt he's changing anything else other than the belt and the tensioner pulley... for me i wouild change the full tensioner, belt and water pump

 

[pj123]

The dampener and tensioner are the same part. You want to buy a tensioner/ dampener (with the release pin) and this has a large and small pulley attached to it. The large pulley is the tensioner pulley and the small one is just an idler. I think you are right about the waterpump as i had a similar problem, parts of the plastic impeller break off. I replaced mine with a non OEM metal impeller (and new seal). You will also need some Audi/ vw specific coolant (pink stuff).

You dont need to change the aux belt tensioner but worth changing the belt if it looks tired and worth doing if you are paying a garage to do the work as the belt is only £13ish.. If you dont change the aux belt they suggest marking it and refitting it in the same direction as before else it often breaks straight away.

As your car overheated i would recommend changing the thermostat at the same time while the coolant is drained. Overheating ruins the 'spring' of the thermostat and you will end up having to do it later.

Kits vary as to what is included. A friend with your engine and myself with an APY both bought kits from GSF. My kit included belt and the idler. His included belt, idler, tensioner and tensioner pulley so i think it depends where you get it and which engine...

Other tips,
- Get a socket allan key to undo the four bolts holding the lowest pulley for the aux belt onto the crankshaft. Needs a lot of force to undo these and cheap allan keys aren't good enough.
- Put coolant on the seal for the waterpump before fitting else the seal doesn't locate properly and can leak.
- When replacing all the parts it is easier to leave the idler off until you have fitted the belt as its quite a tight fit round all the pulleys.

The price he quoted seems cheap, it take 4 hours if you know what you are doing and are doing the job carefully. I think I paid about £130 for all the parts and coolant from gsf not including a thermostat.

 

[SpKM3]

Thanks for the replies. Meant to say that the garage quoted £125 for labour plus £200 for parts, so £325 in total, apologies for the confusion. I had a look on euro car parts when pricing up items that I needed and came to about £183, which includes aux belt, damper, cam kit, thermostat and water pump (metal imp), VW spares was also similar in price, so I guess the garage quote seemed reasonable. I rang them again to ask what parts they are using and said "Dayco", not sure if anyone here can comment on these? When I mentioned contitech, he pretty much said these were not that good.

The aux belt appears to have surface cracks so I better to get that replaced. My car is in its 12 year with 76k on the clock and never had the cam belt done so I'm on borrowed time.

I would have liked to have a go myself but don't have the time/tools to do it (that's my excuse anyway).