Cambelt Cost. Are you sitting down?!

[BahnStormer77]

£495 was their old special for 4-cylinder cars... sadly not for V6's and that shoul dinclude a courtesy car, although some charge you about £15 for "insurance".

 

[oatcake]

Just had mine done for £150 by a local mechanic

 

[AliGod78]

£3,300 to get mine done

 

[maxpayne]

Hi,

I need to get the cam belt done on our MY2005 2.0 TFSI and contemplating options.

If I get the kit and water pump from TPS, the price comes down to around £200, while if I buy them from a Skoda dealer on eBay around £150 (kit for example https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321974245697)

Anything else parts wise? I assume the damper is part of the kit?

A local garage (not an Audi specialist per say, but specialise in German cars) will charge me £130 for labour if I get the parts myself.

So that comes to 350-400 in total. On the other hand, an Audi independent garage in north west London will charge £430 for the whole lot using genuine parts (not sure what that means).

So we're talking £100 in the best case scenario for own parts vs everything at a garage.

Seeing you're from London, any other garage you'd recommend?

Thanks!

The dealer does not allways replace all the parts when they do a cambelt and the way they list the parts isnt too clear either ! Anyway, for the v6 tdi engines a lot goes on parts as you have a rather complex belt system. I allways use the full Contitech cambelt kit wich includes the vibration damper (115 quid part on its own from dealer), genuine thermostat and seal (25 quid), 5L of Longlife antifreeze, aux. belts (2 of) kwp water pump (with metal impeller). If you guys are feeling brave you can buy cambelts kits off ebay for about 160-170 quid but they dont include the vibration damper and are of unknown age or make. I would stress to avoid DAYCO belts for the v6 engines (petrol or diesel) as they're just **** and snap at the joint line thus wrecking the engine- had one failed on one of my cars due to a garage trying to save a few bobs. The powerfull v6 engines came with a Contitech cambelt, even the dealer supplied kits. All tensioners/rollers should be either made by Littens,INA or SKF and they are proven and tested. Stay away from cheap water pumps as the bearings can colapse (fitted a Topran/Isoran-pump to a mate's passat v6 tdi wich he bought from GSF and it started desintegrating after less than 9 months and 7k miles. Topran is also part of Dayco group !) and if it makes you feel safe fit only genuine. I fit KWP/Meyle water pumps as they are made in Germany and feature genuine bearings and in over 5 years i had none failing. The water pumps for the dealer are made by Circoli (made in Italy) and feature plastic impellers...but are over twice the price. For all the above and dynamic testing/seting of injector pump i charge 450 quid(480 with genuine thermostat and seal), parts alone are over 350 pounds trade prices and the job takes between 6 and 8 hours ! I also like to check and replace the aux. belt tensioner bushes and braket especially if the car is high mileage as they wear and when the braket wears out (cast alloy) it costs 115 quid +VAT and it's a pain to replace. The bushes/spindles/seals and bolts i allways have a handfull of these as they are a common failure. I allways flush the coolant (dealer only top it up) and mix it good enough for -30 Celsius. I've done countles cambelts and from time to time i have the odd leaky pump gasket or thermostat seal (done a few to forum members as well) wich might take a little longer but thats unfortunate-i'm afraid ! Regards,
Chris.

 

[Nollywood]

That's a pretty heart-stopping quote.

Luckily, I've never had to get any mechanical or electrical work performed on any of my Audi's, by a dealership. There's nothing I haven't been able to do myself, being an ex Audi Master Tech. has its perks.

Yes, a timing belt replacement on a 3.0 V6 is more involved than on a 4 cylinder, 2.6 / 2.8 V6 12V or even a 2.4 / 2.7T / 2.8 V6 30V, due to the free-wheeling cam wheel (x4) arrangement, and the fact the valve covers have to be removed, to allow the camlocks to be installed. But, it's still an easy job. It takes me 2.5 hours, from pulling the front end, to finish and engine start.

Audi should be making a killing.

 

[spottedhaggis]

what sort of cost will it be to change the tensioners not the actual cam belt itself?

 

[jd26]

what sort of cost will it be to change the tensioners not the actual cam belt itself?

Not sure why anyone would want to do this and not change ultimately a perishable item
which would only cost a few pounds extra to change?

Majority of the job is labour so I can't see there even being a difference other than pennies for a rubber band...

 

[Roland Wong]

Had the timing belt, tensioner, idler, water pump (metal impeller) serpentine belt, topped up anti-freeze and CVT fluid for £570 / $800 for my 1.8L engine by an independent. They did a fine job without any issues. In the States we have YELP! which gives ratings for just about any type of service, be it automotive, restaurants...etc.