Hi Guys i need a little advice please.

my son has just bought a seat a leon on a 99 plate with the 1,4 16 valve engine ,its done 60000 and never had a cambelt change ,i am worried its going to let go .

I cannot find any information on the engine but i think its the same lump thats in the 1.4 fabia .

how hard the job is to do and the likely price to get it done .

thanks all.

Hi,

Don't know if this is typical or not, but my wife's Fabia 16V cost £282 at a good VW indy garage.

This included a new water pump (a must do in my opinion unless you are sure it already has the metal impellors) and new ancillary belts (eg alternator).

Spent a fortune getting the thing serviced and a new cam belt fitted in April and she then promptly p/exd it for a new Fabia. Grrr............

Jabbasport website quotes £235 cam belt, £290 with pump.

Matt

Unless your a really proficient do-yourselfer, let a garage do it. Mine cost approx £312 over 18 months ago at a Skoda main dealer. Car was six years old and had done 40,000.

Doing it yourself would cost about £70 for the belt kit + £40 water pump, inc postage.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Cambelt-kit-CT957K1-SKODA-FABIA-OCTAVIA-/390225715629

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Water-Pump-Skoda-Fabia-I-(6Y)-1.4i-16v--02%2f06-12%2f07_W0QQitemZ200407417344QQcmdZViewItem?rvr_id=128305482657&rvr_id=128305482657&cguid=9b39282b12a0a0e20514aa84ffd91aa8

Although handbooks say service life for the belt for the petrol can be, according to the maunfacturers, Continental, up to 120,000 (that would be ten years on average UK mileage), I think that would be really pushing it. Equally, Skoda\VAG UK has recently come out with its own replacement standard which I think is 4 years or 50,000 miles (Check out other previous recent posts on this subject - mine (February 2009) has been deleted from the archive). I think this is pushing it too much the other way and that the advice is probably more relevant to TDI diesels. At the time I had mine done, none of the other European VAG organisations had followed VAG UKs suit.

Check out "Honest John" website for advice.

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=67755

According to HJ there is a problem with 1.4s Leons plastic cam belt tensioner wheel shattering after 40,000 and 1.8 20v Leons snapping the cam belt at 70,000.

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/seat/leon-1999?section=bad

On a Fabia 1.4 16v BBZ (Mine), this is a bit different from a straight foward belt change in that the run of the belt surrounds an engine mount, so that whilst you can obviously cut the belt to get the old one off, I think you have to undo an engine mount and and partially support the engine on a jack and additionally remove (And replace, might as well) the auxillary belt in order to get the new cambelt on on. Many recommend replacing the water pump at the same time - appareantly the original has a plastic impeller which can fail. Also, I think the standard belt kit (Continental ?) includes replacement belt tensioners (spring + wheel). Again, ther have been reports of this plastic wheel failing and causing the belt to go loose and either slip a cog or come-off. The BBZ is an "Interference" design so that the travel on valves on induction and exhaust overlaps the position of the pistons on compression, so that if the cam belt comes adrift leaving inlet or exhaust valves open, metal-to-metal contact will probably occur on the piston upstrokes, causing damage - even a minor top end rebuild, £1300.

In days gone by I have replaced cam belts , on the basis of advice in car mags and the like, on things like an Alfa Sud (4-pot horizontally opposed) at 40,000 and thought it a waste of money in that the belts were in good condition, with no wear on the teeth. And the belts on the Sud were exposed to the debris coming up from the road - being horizontally opposed the cams were low down in the engine bay and the belts uncovered, unlike the Fabia where the cams are high-up and the belt runs behind a plastic cover. Belt on my VW Golf MK1 1.1 was never changed and that did 75,000 from new 'till it went to the scrappies.

I imagine that cars that have gone through the heat/cool cycle at extremes of the temperature envelope i.e.lots of motorway high speed runs, or congested city traffic or those used in cooler climes will be more prone to plastic bits like the tensioner wheel and water pump vanes failing.

If you do it yourself you'll also have to buy or fabricate a tool to keep the cam cogs in position whilst the belt is off.

As to the factors which effect belt life, it would seem in my case that the dealer's mechanic decided on age rather than mileage. If i'd done average UK annual mileage then my car would have been at 72,000 when the belts were changed. It all depends on usuage and environment. Best thing is to take the plastic cover off and take a look at the belt. Only trouble is you have to uncouiple the engine mount in order to take the cover off and if you are doing that you might as well replace the belt !!!

Seat leons are aimed at the younger aged group/those going thru a mid-lfe crisis so a 1.4 leon engine may get hammered more than a 1.4 Fabia. Maybe

As usual whether you do it yourself depends on how much risk you want to take + mechanicing skills + how much time you got available to do it (I'd set aside a short day (6 hrs) as an occasional mechanic) versus cost of a dealer doing it.

Or simply take out an extended warranty to cover all mechanical - for the Fab it works out at £30 a month - will undoubtedtly be a little more for the Seat.

Nick

Edited 22 August, 201015 yr by Clunkclick

Thanks all for your thoughts . Now is the hard part of trying to convince my lad to get it done before he spends all his pennies on new wheels and lowering spings