My 1998 octavia is due a cambelt change am i wise to get the water pump done at the same time and roughly what would i be looking at for it to be done.

Its a 1.6 8 valve petrol AEH engine..the car has got 79,000 miles on but has never had its water pump done.

thanks guys.

Not long did my Vrs, both cambelt and water pump, done by local skoda garage was a little over £256 all in, parts and labour, so, just alter for the cost of your parts vs the vrs parts (cant imagine there is a lot in it tho tbh).....

I think for peace of mind for the next four years, it is wise to change the water pump at the same time as the cam belt.

Sods law, if you did'nt it could fail soon after and then you would have it all to do again.

HTH.

ive heard around that is good to change the belt tensor, water pump, timing belt and engine mount bolts all at once. just last week i saw a 1999 octy stranded and it appeared that the engine fell on the right side. maybe he did the timing but didnt change the bolts and theold ones snapped.

Just a quote from the email I had with regards to my VRS :

{Spam?} Re: {Spam?} RE: {Spam?} Skoda‏

From: Lavina McCann ([email protected])

Sent: 08 September 2009 16:57:48

To:

Dear Justin,

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you. I have now received the prices for you.

The cambelt will depend on the mileage of the vehicle. If the car has done 160,000k miles it will require a timing kit (includes tensioner). The price for the cambelt kit + water pump and coolant + labour is £347.75 inc of vat.

If the vehicle has not done 160,000k miles then it will only require a belt. The price for the belt and water pump + coolant + labour is £263.31 inc of vat.

Take it as you will, but if they say tensioner not needed, why spend out for it, obviously diff engines but still comparable...

Just a quote from the email I had with regards to my VRS :

Take it as you will, but if they say tensioner not needed, why spend out for it, obviously diff engines but still comparable...

The cam belt kit does'nt come with the tensioner/damper inc, what you do get with it is a belt and two idler rollers. One of the rollers (the small one) replaces a fixed idler roller that bolts directly to the tensioner/damper.

I bought a kit (£77.43) and the tensioner (£70.80) when I did mine and you end up with one spare new roller because the tensioner comes already fitted with the small fixed roller.

PS. wonder why they did'nt include the price of engine mounting stretch bolts in the quote :confused:

got a good quote to replace the cam belt - waterpump - pullys and idlers comes out at £155.

I never got a quote for the engine mounting bolts though? are these expensive? and do they need doing as i have never done this on any car i have had - or is an octavia issue?

Cheers guys.

I don't altogether subscribe to this 'change everything just for the sake of it' ideology. I did my cambelt just over a year ago after it had done 80,000 miles, and I kid you not there was nothing wrong with the old tensioner or rollers. There was no wear in the bearings at all, and the oil seals were in perfect condition, yet I changed them because they were part of the kit.

The water pump was also in perfect condition and so I saw no reason to change it......

I don't altogether subscribe to this 'change everything just for the sake of it' ideology. I did my cambelt just over a year ago after it had done 80,000 miles, and I kid you not there was nothing wrong with the old tensioner or rollers. There was no wear in the bearings at all, and the oil seals were in perfect condition, yet I changed them because they were part of the kit.

The water pump was also in perfect condition and so I saw no reason to change it......

I kind of agree with you there. I had the cambelt and water pump done this week at the local dealership. I asked them to keep the bits they took off to one side for me to have a look at. They looked absolutely brand new, all of them. I thought they'd shown me a box of new bits, but no, they were all off my car.

Part of me is kicking myself for shelling out nearly three hundred pounds on something that apparently didn't need doing. However, the other half of me can now relax until the year 2013 as things won't need doing until then.

It's all a gamble and you have to work out the odds of spending money against the niggling doubt that you have skimped on the essentials....

Some good points from railroad I wasnt aware about the engine mounting bolts though - am i best to leave this out or should they be ok at just under 80K as i have never replaced or had to replace these on any car i have owned.

Cheers.

Some good points from railroad I wasnt aware about the engine mounting bolts though - am i best to leave this out or should they be ok at just under 80K as i have never replaced or had to replace these on any car i have owned.

Cheers.

When I did mine I changed all 7 bolts which is OTT

But the two stretch bolts that bolt the R/H engine mounting to the engine mounting brkt can only be used once.... because as the name suggests, they stretch when they are tightened.

Here's a picture of the seven engine mounting bolts

The two 10mm bolts on the left fasten the engine mounting to the inner wing, the three 10mm bolts in the center fasten the engine mounting bracket to the engine block, and the two 12mm bolts on the right fasten the engine mounting to the engine mounting bracket.

Technically, all bolts are stretch bolts but in this instance the bolts to be concerned about are the three on the right.

The long 10mm bolt has a 9mm waisted shank, and the two 12mm bolts have an 11mm waisted shank.

HTH