Just had my cam belt and auxiliary belts changed, after reading various treads on the time limit of 4 years (or 120k) that Skoda has introduced. I've had my vRS six years and only covered 39k in it from new and therefore had no intention of getting it changed yet, however it would have been just my luck for it to have gone early, so after calling my local skoda dealer and being quoted a ridiculous price of around £300 i decided to ring around. A local garage agreed to do it for £150 and change my auxiliary belts at the same time at no extra cost, BARGAIN! :thumbup:

£300 wasn't a bad price and you get piece of mind with parts warranty.

Glad you got it sorted though.

Garage that done my cam belt fitted genuine parts.

Im a little suspicious as for a new cambelt, tensioner and damper you looking at the best part of £100, plus the new mounting bolts.

You tellng me they did 3.50 hours work for £50????

Well £50 for 3.5 hours work equates to a annual salary of just under 30k so it could be plausible.

Just got mine done - £340 with metal impellar, so £150 sounds unlikely unless its a 1 man band.

£50 for a homer would be ok, but no way does that cover workshop overheads and give the guy a decent income; even up here you'd be looking at more like twice that (and that's ignoring Brown's Bit).

Its only a small garage and the guy showed me the parts receipt from skoda for a cam belt kit costing £68.76 inc vat and it took him about 2 3/4, I saw the car on the ramps with engine dropped to gain access to cam belt and all the bits. I stand with my comment that in my opinion my main dealer charge outrageous rates and the local garage I used did a quality job!

Please tell me you had the water pump done at the same time.

Didnt have water pump done. Why, is this a problem? Should I have done?

Search "impeller" "water pump" on Briskoda

Its only a small garage and the guy showed me the parts receipt from skoda for a cam belt kit costing £68.76 inc vat and it took him about 2 3/4, I saw the car on the ramps with engine dropped to gain access to cam belt and all the bits. I stand with my comment that in my opinion my main dealer charge outrageous rates and the local garage I used did a quality job!

What was the name of the guy that did it? (his initials are not D G are they?)

If it was then i can vouch it would of been a top job done, i have been telling him for the last 20 years he charges nowhere near enough!

Cambelt kit doesnt include the damper.

£50 for a homer would be ok, but no way does that cover workshop overheads and give the guy a decent income; even up here you'd be looking at more like twice that (and that's ignoring Brown's Bit).

I charge more than that for a homer. Work my labour rate at around £40 per hour, under half what a customer gets charged at work.

:confused:What bits should I change on a y2000 TDi AHF engine and what comes as standard on a cam kit ? - Stuart.

I charge more than that for a homer. Work my labour rate at around £40 per hour, under half what a customer gets charged at work.

Whereas I relate what I charge for homers to what I get paid, not to garage rates (and I'm used to my mechanic mates doing likewise). OTOH I don't have a workshop to pay for.