ALt. belt disintegrated.... on an overtake..

dieselfitter251

dieselfitter251

Blow ma own trumpet?
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Thankfully beining a diesel it kept on chugging....:racer:but has anyone ever driven a B5 q without power steering..... Good job I keep the gym membership up...:weight_lift2:
...the biggest pain in the **** is that I've had to put it into a local garage to get done as I'm working all over Scotland this week and the missus needs her car. I've got to borrow one of my parents cars while forking out for a garage to get mine on the road, a job which would normally take me a couple of hours, (tensioner collapsed too).
GRRRRRRR!!!!!
My other concern is that the tensior and alt belt were last changed with the timing belt about 56k ago....:ohmy:...yup, paranoid.

On a lighter note, got my drivers door window mech sorted + new switch for said window and retrived the plastic clip that secures the rear seat cushion to the floor pan... no more squeaking!!!! :happy:

Anybody else got garage bills just in time for christmas?
 
Lol, you're lucky!

Same thing happened to a member on here, and the belt got dragged behind the crank pulley.

It destroyed the timing belt, with catastrophic results to the valves, tappets, camshaft and cylinder head.
 
I've just had to fork out £1200 for my insurance, £185 for tax and £400 for tyres :(

Just hope my girlfriend like the lump of coal i've got her for xmas :huh:
 
drove 90 odd miles with no power steering in my v6 tdi, took all my strength on the rounabouts, luckily belt snapped on a straight bit of road
 
Blue_Thunder said:
I've just had to fork out £1200 for my insurance, £185 for tax and £400 for tyres :(

Just hope my girlfriend like the lump of coal i've got her for xmas :huh:
Click to expand...

£1,200 insurance!!:sign_omg:
my renewal at the end of last month netted out at £120 tpf&t :)
 
Blue_Thunder said:
I've just had to fork out £1200 for my insurance, £185 for tax and £400 for tyres :(

Just hope my girlfriend like the lump of coal i've got her for xmas :huh:
Click to expand...

I think you've got the prize mate.... :salute:
TB is needing done on mine too....An 'I get the fear job' for me.... So I guess it'll be in the garage.... again...

I was lucky that the alt belt went on a straight too, 'twas fun trying to keep the temp down tho....

and about that coal..... A piece of coal is just a diamond waiting to happen..!!!:rolleyes:
 
I can imagine it's bleed'n heavy to steer on anything other than a straight road. Out of interest - did you change all the auxilliary belts when it was last in for its timing belt renewal?
 
usually the tensioner fails and begins to run at an angle, which either throws the belt off or slowly wears it thru. My parents old 1.8T did the same and the garage didnt realise it was the tensioner and just fitted a new belt, needless to say about a month later it threw the belt again.

Our belt half shredded itself because of a faulty tensioner, i managed to carefully cut the shredded bit off, so it was drivable with half the belt until we got it changed.
 
My old A4 ate its belt. Drove it to my mates workshop without it. Faster you went the easier it was to cope with so I pootled down the motorway at 60. Didn't realise how eay putting the belt on was or I would have used my Fiesta and gone and grabbed a new belt and done it myself.
 
only problem driving without a belt is that it runs the waterpump, and the engine wont run for long with no waterpump...
 
Aye, all belt and tensior were replaced at the lest timing belt change, which is why I'm nervous about the TB...
Hopefully getting the TB done asap, not so many miles to do over the next few weeks so hopefully it'll hold together!!!!

....and on the drive home I had to stop a couple of times to silence the temp warning beep!!
 
:mad: *RANT* :motz:

I wish I'd had the time to do the alt. belt & tensioner.

My 'local' garage is 'fitting' in the work around the other jobs they have, seem to think I said that there was no hurry.... What I did say was that, as it wasn't going to be ready for Wednesday (parts deliveryed on Wednesday)then there'd be no point in rushing to get it finished in time for me to collect on Wednesday night. So I was expecting Thursday???

So I go and see them today, front end is sitting part off, the mechanic doesn't know how to unplug my lights, (I've done a facelift mod and just not got round to shrinkwrapping the 8 bare wires...) and reckoned the wiring looked to fragile. So I umplug them for him. Next is a problem in pulling the front end forward far enough, I can't see a problem, anyway, theres plenty of access where it is. Next is getting the viscous fan off (to get the alternator out to replace the tensioner), granted I didn't know how to do this until I came home and looked at the ****** manual. I'm in two minds now to go down with the Haynes manual tomorrow and A)leave the manual with him B)Just finish the job myself.

I mean, I wouldn't say. Sure I can perform that route canal sir, just have a seat and I'll see how I get on... or..of course Miss. Just lie there and we'll have that wain out on a jiffy...now... have You done this before? :keule::banghead:

Maybe I'm being harsh....?
 
The 1.8T might be different to the TDI, but the alternator and viscous fan doesnt need touched on the 1.8T and the front panel only needs moved into service position, not removed completely... sounds like the reason i avoid letting garages do any work to my cars tbh.
 
The alternator on the 1,9 TDI 110 doesn't need to be removed to gain access to the serpentine belt tensioner, or even replace it.
 
So the nut on front of the tensioner just gets undone and the tensioner comes out? My elsawin is knackered.
Incidently, It'll be Monday now before I get it back.
 
again on the 1.8t the tensioner had a big opening (1" square iirc) on the front to move it to remove the belt, then 3 cap heads holding the body of the tensioner to the block/head.

You dont want to touch the bolt on the actually roller itself, its the entire tensioner that needs replaced...
 
Gotcha.... I'm going to try to re-instal my elsawin and check it out.
I'm doing it myself next time, even if it means a week of public transport and borrowed cars. I have to wait to Monday, which is when I'm off for a week, I've gained nothing..Should have just waited & should know better by now.
 
£600+ for an Alt belt(s) and tensioner + labour... he said it was a mess because the previous garage had f**ked it up. I've haven't been down to see them yet, I'm looking out my replica Broad Sword and sharpening stone.
 
^^^ At £600, that exceeds timing belt, water pump, tensioner, coolant and labor cost.
 
Long and the short of it is that they sent me away with the car and told me to get back in touch with them after christmas, quote "as I obviously wasn't going to pay just now". A kind of go home and calm down attitude.

The labour costs are coming in at about 12 hours work (about 35 p/h + vat). The mechanic didn't actually say how long he spent on the car but did say that he was at it from 8.30 yesterday til 4.50.... doing what?!

He also had a moan at the state of the front end of the car and how it was almost impossible to put back together because of the amounts of bits that were missing?!

Alt. kit was quoted at £130?!!!!

They said they got quotes from other garages e.g. Verve in Carlise that they were looking at a similar sort of cost and time scale. (£570) Who I think are £60 p/h, erm doesn't that work out at approx 7.5 hrs, + my garages parts price for £130. Would have been cheaper then?

I'm just waiting on some more quotes of my own coming in.

Two quotes from Garages I 'prefer' to use are around the 2 hour mark (absolute maximum they said) and their parts quotes were 40quid cheaper! I did of course make a fatal mistake in not getting a rough quote from the garage before work started - I am total **** for making that mistake, my head was up my bum last week as I was so busy.

The boss guy was hanging around at this point and asked me at what I did for a living, I told him and he gave me one of those... well, until you know what you're talking about I guess you should shut your mouth kind of looks. At which point I said that I'd be personally embaressed if it took me more that 12hrs to do the work invloved with my car.... I may have basic mechanic skills but COME ON!!!! 12hrs+ on an alt. belt?!
That was when he said we should talk after christmas.
 
Hmmm Verve Carlise quoted my garage £570approx
Verve Carlisle quoted me £242 inc VAT.... with any extra work entailed to be carried out after consulting me....

What am I to do guys? I've read on-line that if the bill is disputed and remains unroselved I can get the Dept. of Transport involved?
 
I think that Verve have quoted your garage on a timing belt job !!

Did your garage get their one handed blind apprentice to do the work hence 12hrs ??
 
Even the timing belt job shouldn't come in at that. Doesn't elsawin put it (timing belt) at 3.9hrs? The old boy that did it seemed to justify it by saying that it was really fiddley and the car was a mess to begin with. I'm just ****** off. If they decide not to budge on the price I'll check out my standing as per the law. They are not getting what they've asked for.
 
have you got the car back off them? if so i'd refuse to pay anything at all and tell them to see you in court.
 
8 hours 20 minutes is enough time to do an engine removal, and replacement.
 
Aye, got the car back today, in my possesion. The missus is clued up on scot's law and I'm going to the C.A.B., I'm willing to pay a reasonable price for new parts and a reasonable cost for labour which I think is fair. I'm thinking of getting a figure and saying take it or leave it or I'll see you in court.
 
A wee update. I went to Carlisle Audi to get a quote from them for the work.... All in £180... £100 parts + 1hr work....

Appointment to see citizens advice on Monday, just to make sure.

Audi couldn't print me off a quote as my car was an import in '97, I think this is because they cost the work through reg / chassis number? How am I going to get a pirnted estimate? Anybody here able to help?
 
Glasgow Audi quote :328.42
Bradford VW (Dumfries):334.17
My new favourite Garage in Carlisle:220.32 (and they said that this quote was an outside quote to include time for bits of belts stuck to pullies and such)
Local Garage original quote:602.pp
Local Garage new quote: 392.00

I'm still not happy. They got it down to 7hrs labour + parts. I said that I could pay the 392 (dropped in the "..and I'll be contacting the D.o.T." phrase) and it would be the end of it or pay 300 (still waaaay over what it should be) and we'd be even, call it quits. I've now to go back tomorrow and speak to 'The Boss'.

Amazing how they managed to drop 210 quid of it?! Seamingly, a big part of the problem was that a lot of the bumper clips & screw locators were knackered along with cable retainers in front of the fan were perished. He didn't think I'd want to know about that so he just cracked on.

grrrr.

I shall say no more. At least until I've been down tomorrow ;o)
 
you dont need to touch cable retainers and clips though, thats the point.

Removing the bumper takes about 10 minutes, then you pull two of the bumper shock bolts and replace it with screwed rod, then remove the rest of them and slide the lock carrier forward 6" and thats it, swap the tensioner and replace the belt.

The audi dealer quotes are expensive, but remember they'll probably be charging something like £100 an hour in labour, if you ask them how many hours the job is on their books, i'd bet its no more than two. Even counting things being stubborn, its certainly not 7 hours work, you could have the engine out in that time, and i've changed cylinder heads in less time in the past...

When i did mine, I'd never touched the front end of my car before, and i managed it in under two hours. I drove into the workshop at 4:30 and was out by 6:30, and that included me scratching my head for a while trying to work out how exactly the bumper and lock carrier came off...
 
Aye, I know. Try explaining all that to a mechanic who not only tries to justify all the work he's 'had' to do but believes he's saved me a lot of problems in the future. He couldn't 'leave it' it the way it was. I say fine, thanks for the effort. I didn't ask you to do that work and you sure as hell didn't advise me of all the extra time and effort you 'think' it required. I'm speaking to the boss today. I'll post an outcome.

Glasgow audi are coming back at 3 hrs work? approx £65 p/h I think, as are Dumfries VW.
 
well it certainly didnt take me 3 hours, and i'm not a "professional" audi mechanic with expert knowledge of the car....

I very much loath the day when i have to get something on the car done at a garage!
 
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