Does this sound right?

I was quoted a 'special offer' price by a VW garage to do my cambelt on my Fabia VRS (53 reg), Inc VAT, parts & labour i was quoted £299.

However, when i asked if this included the water pump they went off & came back & i was told it would be an extra £100. This was because of the extra labour!

I thought the water pump was more or less a 2 minute job if doing the campbelt.

Is the garage trying to get more money out of me?

This was because of the extra labour!

That bit doesn't sound right, it's more likely to be the cost of the pump, though it still seems a little high. Might be worth checking prices on GSF or EuroCarParts for the equivalent price.

I have an Octy, recently got the cambelt done and asked them to change the waterpump also, which cost me £80 for the pump (rest of cambelt change was done FoC, but that's another story).

Last year, in Glasgow, I was quoted £300 for the full belt kit, waterpump and labour.

I've just paid £370 for cambelt and water pump at the dealers (knocked down from £423ish I think). I'm in work at the moment but when I'm home i'll look on the invoice for the breakdown and see how much the pump was.. can't see it being £100 though.

Marc

Edited 15 September, 201015 yr by Marc81

Sounds like someone either taking the pies, or pricing it up as two separate jobs. Retail price for a water pump should be £50 or under. Depending on your garage, sometimes the person pricing it up gets the wrong end of the stick. My Octy needed discs and pads to get through the MOT this year. The woman on reception was told to quote me to replace them, and priced up replacing the rears instead of the fronts. However, to give them their due, they stuck to the price they quoted me, even though they lost money doing it. A rare thing indeed!

I paid £326 (including labour) for cambelt, water pump and brake fluid change

Edited 15 September, 201015 yr by chrisw880

I've rang them back & they told me that the pump is £45 ex VAT - so £53

So, an extra £47 to fit the water pump.

How much time does it take to fit an new water pump (when changing the cambelt - not on its own)?

Plus you will need a bottle of G12 coolant

About 10 seconds (to unbox) as they are supposed to take the pump out to inspect it anyway during the cambelt change.

I've been looking into this too and it seems to be standard pricing as I have seen exactly the same quoted at other dealers - I tried the local VW dealer as there is no Skoda dealer close by and got the same pricing.

Arguably, you possibly don't want a genuine pump anyway and instead are better off with a metal impeller one instead.

Yep, thought the part price was £40ish. So yes, something's not right there.

Ask them to explain the breakdown of that additional £100 charge.

Steve

My 2005 Fabia VRS had the cambelt,axillary belt,water pump and the G12 anti-freeze renewed earlier this year at an independent garage, I paid £346 all-in.

I thought price was about average and have no complaint.

Car is 5 year old with about 48,000 miles today, so mileage below recommendation but a year older than recommendation, (for above work), it were a balance of the two.

About 10 seconds (to unbox) as they are supposed to take the pump out to inspect it anyway during the cambelt change.

Why? I've seen people suggest that more impellors are broken during the pump removal than break up in service (experience suggests otherwise though, since what impells most of the investigations I've known of is the car overheating due to the failed impellor). Obviously, this also means that most impellor failures occur well away from cambelt change times.

Arguably, you possibly don't want a genuine pump anyway and instead are better off with a metal impeller one instead.

Or not. If the bearing fails, a metal impellor will jam against the housing, and throw the cambelt off the pulleys.

i paid £50 to get my timing belt, waterpump new coolant fitted! LOL

water pump will be 33.40+vat and coolant is 7.17 +vat for 1.5 litre, probably require 2 off them

water pump will be 33.40+vat and coolant is 7.17 +vat for 1.5 litre, probably require 2 off them

Just got in and checked my invoice.. 33.60+vat for the pump and 14.34 for the coolant so pretty much bang on there! They must have robbed me of 20p :p

Marc

I paid the cost of the pump (chose metal impeller) and fluid total about £47 2009

National

Or not. If the bearing fails, a metal impellor will jam against the housing, and throw the cambelt off the pulleys.

My mate who is a VW techy said the plastic ones are still fitted for the reason that if the worst case happens the plastic impellors one spins on the shaft, this is why a standard VW one will still be plastic impellor.

The water pump at VW for TDi engine is 40 quid exchange, and yes as other people have said it is a 2 min job when the belt is off

so 100 quid extra for that job is taking the p*ss in my opinion.

Lewwy

to be fair, it may just be them being cautious, especially if they've never done one before... for example if i asked you to change a water pump on a vr6 engine you WOULD cry your eyes out in despair, you have to unbolt the engine from it's mountings and lower it down past the front crossmember to get to it... so £100 for the price of a pump and some pink flavoured juice might not be too outargeous...

Got mine all in for £229 all in..