Timing Belt - Once and for All

[JustCruisn]

Water Pump $105
Damper Tension belt $119
Timing Belt $68
Thermostat $22.27
Tensioner T/Belt $82.25
Coolant $34.20
Labour $80/hr $346.40

Total $777.12
German Autos Geebung

Mine only made it to 70752km before the pump shat itself.
They flushed and strained all the coolant until all bits of the plastic impeller were located.

[blutopless2]

well got our new beetle cabrio back from servicing today...
60000k service, timing belt, tensioner, water pump.
new battery and code clearing for airbags (low voltage due to battery dying)
total of $910.

[Bug_racer]

Thats getting a little too cheap . I would be making sure all parts are replaced as well , seen it many times parts are charged but never replaced


Also , am I the only one changing power steering fluid as well ??

I just purchased an '03 GTI, wich has had this service.
all standard servicing was done by VW, but this was done bysome random auto repairer. according to the receipt, they tried changing the thermostat first to see what caused the over heating:

coolant - 38
thermostat - 15
hose clips - 3
timing belt - 140
water pump - 190
car hours - 200
total = $644 incl gst.

not bad compared to the $1500 mentioned in this thread!

[No457 Snowy]

Thats getting a little too cheap . I would be making sure all parts are replaced as well , seen it many times parts are charged but never replaced


Also , am I the only one changing power steering fluid as well ??

Seb's got a very good point there, it's the same with anything, you can pay too much and be ripped off, but you can also pay too little and still be ripped off because things weren't done properly or replaced.

It's amazing to see price variations for the same standard maintenance job.


Snowy.

[Mrk_Mickey]

I can agree with that, but I have heard that you can hear the chains going long before they do...

Yeah this is true. Sorry for the off-topic post guys; you'll usually hear the chains going as a result of dodgy placement of chains, ie bad rails/guides etc. i think it's a lot more rare if the chains themselves break, but they do. that would be catastrophic!

[Jmac]

$910 for all of that which includes the service is WAY to cheap. got to be somethings missed there for sure and i would reckon important items. Seb you are not the only one doing the power steering fluid mate. I have posted on here many times about my opinions on shelf life of oils like Zf trannies and the likes, but you are right next to no one does it and loads of stuff gets missed. There is being cheap and being cheap and thorough.
Cheers
Jmac

[Mr Messy]

I collected my MK4 after a big service at Camden GTI today. I had the T-belt, tensioner and water pump replaced as well as a full service.

It was done in good time for well less than $900, which I thought was very resonable.

I was happy I went with a new metal water pump as unbeknownst to me the original plastic unit had broken impeller blades (that were fished out of the car's coolant system) and wasn't far from failure. I might upload pix on another day.

I've gotta praise Matthew and co for doing a great job at a good price and not patronising me despite my limited knowledge of the MK4. Hurrah!

P.S it's off topic but my air con was broken and was sorted for another $100 or so (!!!) spent on gas and replacing faulty electrical connections. This easy fix was a lovely surprise as I was planning to dump money saved for a re-flash into a new A/C compressor. Woo!

[Jmac]

Been low on gas then mate, you must have a leak somewhere, keep an eye on that. Good work changing that pump, nearly every one i have looked at has been stuffed,cracked, split or crumbling. Metal one is the way to go.
JMac

[Mr Messy]

Cheers.
How do I keep an eye on the air con gas???

[Jmac]

Couple of things mate im sure Matt would have put some Dye in with the R134A mate so thats 1 way and the other is AC performance gets poor again, thats a sure sign mate, but if you were needing gas its going somewhere.
Cheers

[dubbed]

You must be chuffed, Mr Messy! It's a good feeling when you find a decent workshop that treats you individually and doesn't charge you an arm and a leg.

[Mr Messy]

Yep, very happy And glad i didn't have to put $1000+ into air conditioning.

[HOLEIN1]

hate to dig up this thread again, but was hoping someone with some experience such as jmac can point me in the right direction...

doing the timing belt next weekend (well a mechanic friend is anyway) so need to order all my parts tomorrow in time for the weekend...

basically this is my list, however was wondering if there is anything else under the timing cover or is part of the process which could be replaced as a precaution - dont want to rip everything apart again if something else goes wrong

also would like to do as much as i can for piece of mind as after this is done there will be a few mods being done such as ECU etc.... here goes...

1)timing belt
2)timing belt tensioner
3)water pump with metal impeller
4)coolant
5)thermostat
6)accessory belt

i believe athat there is also a idler pulley in there - is this worth doing? is there any seals etc etc that could be replaced?

also would it be worth doing the accessory belt tensioner, or is this something that can be easily replaced at a later stage if it were to fail?

bit confused, as when i was considering taking it to a VW specialist they were only going to change the belt and water pump - realistically are my plans a bit of an overkill?

sorry about all the questions, but will probably be handy for others who find this thread oh, the car has just ticked over 80k if thats relevant

much thanks, dan

[HOLEIN1]

just had a look through a few threads on vortex and was wondering if the idler pulley is part of the tensioner assembly? or are they seperate parts which need to be bought?

im referring to the last two pics on this page...

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=2840728&page=3

the thread also mentions a harmonic balancer pulley, should this be replaced also? my god, i didint realise that there were so many parts under there!