Hello again.

As you may or may not be aware, I took my superb in to be serviced at the beginning of this week - expecting a fairly major bit of work needing done. The dealership invoiced for;

Front wipers advise renewal (Smearing) £28.95

Condensation in offside headlamp advise renewal £310.14

Oil leak from EGR valve advise renewal £256.09

Timing Belt Change £229.13

Brake Fluid Change £41.13

Free-play nearside front track rod end £110.27

CV Boot (burst) requires replaced £80.25

Requires engine coolant temperature sensor £88.13

Prices there include VAT, as calculated by myself. First impression are that they sound reasonable enough, actually. It's important that the car have all this done now. I managed to get it for two and a half, taking into account probable wear and tear minus the service history (99,000 Miles).

Questions are... The belt change is inclusive of the tensioner but not the pump, although that gets checked. I've heard the pump should be done as well though?

The headlamp has condensation inside at and a lot of particle debris - and a spider actually. It does look like a justifiable replacement job. The EGR was a surprise but there you go...

The (not really intrusive) whine from the turbo has been very... Eruditely... Diagnosed as a 'noisy turbo'. No recommended work on it or that. Maybe it's benign after all?

And, I think I'm right in saying these things are priced to include labour, yes? E.g. I'll be paying the sum of all those prices and not more. (Something like £1100).

Many (all if you put the effort in) of those jobs can be done quite easily DIY to save you a few quid.

The headlight, I would be tempted to open it up, clean it out and reseal it and see if that helps. Or source a seconhand unit, £300 is a lot to pay to fix condensation!

As for the belt, most people advise replacement of the pump as its no extra labour as everything is stripped down anyways. Sod's law says the pump will fail 3 months down the line and you'll have to do all the work again to get to it if you dont replace it.

Personally I wouldnt pay out £1.1k for that lot, You can cut that bill in half (at least) with a bit of effort.

Edited 12 October, 201015 yr by Keith Lard

Wiper blades prices are a bit steep, & you can do those yourself.

Some of those other prices look a bit OTT, I would shop around, as its now well out of warranty, i would go to an independant & see what they say.

Agree with keiths headlight comment as well,

Coolant temp sensor should be easy enough as well, with the transverse engine in the Superb. It sits under the fuel pump.

The (not really intrusive) whine from the turbo has been very... Eruditely... Diagnosed as a 'noisy turbo'.

I agree with the comments above, many of those prices can be slashed IMHO.

Headlight - Could try splitting/sealing your existing unit. Failing that, you should be able to get one from ebay or a breakers for a fraction of that price.

Oil leak from EGR - Common problem... I'm not sure on the cost. I ran my passat for about 30,000 miles with it leaking... You need to be careful to give it a wipe down now and then, though as you don't want the oil to drip onto the exhaust.

Timing belt seems a good price to me.. Pump is not too expensive so may as well add that, and if the belt has a hydraulic damper then I would consider having that changed (or at least inspected)

Brake fluid isnt too bad

Track rod seems end seems expensive to me. I would check TPS/ ECP for a price on one of those, just remember to add the cost of tracking (I assume the dealer is including this in the price?)

Cant remember the cost of a genuine CV boot, but I'm sure I didn't pay a whole lot more than £80 to have both of mine done, so again might be worth shopping around.

Coolant sensor is expensive. Think they are around £25 to buy, plus a litre bottle of coolant (or 2 if you are going to drain the system) and about 20 minutes work.

Can't really comment on the turbo.

Good luck with it.

Hello again.

Front wipers advise renewal (Smearing) £28.95

Condensation in offside headlamp advise renewal £310.14

Oil leak from EGR valve advise renewal £256.09

Timing Belt Change £229.13

Brake Fluid Change £41.13

Free-play nearside front track rod end £110.27

CV Boot (burst) requires replaced £80.25

Requires engine coolant temperature sensor £88.13

Prices there include VAT, as calculated by myself. First impression are that they sound reasonable enough, actually. It's important that the car have all this done now. I managed to get it for two and a half, taking into account probable wear and tear minus the service history (99,000 Miles).

Questions are... The belt change is inclusive of the tensioner but not the pump, although that gets checked. I've heard the pump should be done as well though?

The headlamp has condensation inside at and a lot of particle debris - and a spider actually. It does look like a justifiable replacement job. The EGR was a surprise but there you go...

The (not really intrusive) whine from the turbo has been very... Eruditely... Diagnosed as a 'noisy turbo'. No recommended work on it or that. Maybe it's benign after all?

And, I think I'm right in saying these things are priced to include labour, yes? E.g. I'll be paying the sum of all those prices and not more. (Something like £1100).

Oil leak from EGR valve advise renewal £256.09

Sorry to hyjack the thread but what is the EGR valve?

I have a leak at the moment and not sure where it is coming from.

Thanks

Sorry to hyjack the thread but what is the EGR valve?

I have a leak at the moment and not sure where it is coming from.

Thanks

Egr stands for exhaust gas recirculation. The egr valve is under the engine cover on the left hand side (as you look at the engine from the front of the car).

It's above the turbo and usually leaks from a hole in the left hand side. If you have oil dripping on the floor then its unlikely to be from the egr as they tend to just weap onto the exhaust in my experience.

Egr stands for exhaust gas recirculation. The egr valve is under the engine cover on the left hand side (as you look at the engine from the front of the car).

It's above the turbo and usually leaks from a hole in the left hand side. If you have oil dripping on the floor then its unlikely to be from the egr as they tend to just weap onto the exhaust in my experience.

Thanks Phil

Lemme post this lot.

The CV, a kit at GSF is £18, or £32 inc joint.

The cambelt is a bargain at less than £300, but make sure you get a new water pump and aux belts.

Coolant sensor is £15 @ GSF, and £5 for the lost anti freeze.

Virtually every Superb blows oil out of the EGR, unless you have a fault code warning on the dash don't bother with it.

Track rod end will be a £20 ish part

Headlight could just be some numpt didn't put the cap back on properly, one good night drive will sort this, and then replace the cap.

If I was you, I'd let them do the cambelt, and brake fluid, and the rest I'd do myself, or find an indy, the CV,CTS, I'd be suprised if you rolled up with the parts you'd be charged anymore than £100 for labour, if that.

Edited 12 October, 201015 yr by Supurbia

Definitely get a new water pump, they are only about £40 for a genuine Skoda/VW one and will only take 5 minutes to change once the mechanic is full steam ahead doing the belt change. I also had all the other belts changed at the same time too, as this is NIL additional labour and just have to pay for the belts, but beware that one of these is very expensive from Skoda, around £60, so might be worth going the GSF route for these ancillary belts, but get genuine timing belt and water pump.

The water pump bearing has a tendency to seize and take the belt with it and then its good bye to the cylinder head. A new one from VAG is £2000.

I experienced a seized water pump on my other car (a Nissan) at 55k miles on a -12 deg C cold start, but on that car the water pump is driven by an ancillary belt so the belt burnt out and I lost power steering and cooling, but on the Superb (and many other VAG cars) this would be terminal as the engine stops when the timing belt fails!

On my Superb a new headlight is £750 (bi-xenon), so yours sounds cheap, BUT a replacement is not really necessary, removing it is easy, bumper off and a few screws then clean it and replace it. Sounds like a cap was not refitted previously when a bulb was changed so dirt got inside, so make sure if you clean it to get a new cap if missing.

Seeing as it was recommended on this forum, I got a quote and took the motor to West End Skoda in Uphall or Broxburn, wherever it is!

They were (as said) very tactful and very competitive with their pricing. Obviously a franchised dealer, also.

I'm going to leave the headlamp for the moment - I'll take the bumper off and open it up. See if I can get rid of it temporarily, just be wiping away or maybe using a non-flammable silica gel packet. Investigate any loose looking or broken seals, whatever. (The guide for doing so actually provided by a poster on this forum - very helpful!).

All the work - including a new pump as well - comes to £800 roughly. That is, as I say, minus the headlamp. But I feel still quite reasonable. I'm no dab hand with cars so I don't want a massive DIY undertaking.

To ask you all then... What is the significance or potential advantage in changing these belts referred to as auxiliaries or tensioners which apparently work around the cam and pump? I haven't asked for those to be done but some of you seem to recommend it? And arguably the most important question - £ Much!?

At 100k miles I would fit a full Contitech belt kit, change both aux drive belts (peanuts) and fit a pattern water pump with a metal impeller. ECP sell all these bits.

I would examine both aux belt idlers very carefully indeed, especially the PAS/Alt/fan drive. Renewal of all these items involves pulling the front of the car - significant labour - so do it once.

I would also examine the alternator pulley clutch - although this can easily be changed at any time without pulling the front.

These cars can be very long lasting, but skimped maintenance will cause trouble.

rotodiesel.

Cheers for your reply, rotodiesel.

As I say, the cam and the water pump are being changed by a franchised dealer. Whether that means the latter will feature a metal impeller, I don't know?

They've told me that they'll have a look around it generally, so whether they'll come back with anything else regarding these auxiliary belts, I'm unsure.

The maintenance on my car has been skimped, I'd say. And that's why this particular service bill is as much as it is, although I purchased the car for £2500 (private) which I still believe was an excellent bit of business despite these costs incurred now. Most of which are simply recommended change overs which have been neglected - fortunately to no current long-term damage. Touch wood.

I'll keep this thread updated. As you can tell I'm very much a motoring-world freshman. These forums are always good for a bit of insight.

The CTS is steep as they are about £34 for a genuine one, they are a bit awkward to get to on the AWX in the Superb - but certainly not £50 hard!

Trackrod end seems very steep to me.

CV boot, well IIRC the 'kit is about £30(?) so £50 to change is not to bad as they are never a nice job to change.

The headlight I too would try splitting first to see if it can be cleaned up.

EGR, wipe it down and monitor how much is leaking as they all weep.

The cambelt is a very good price and the brake fluid change is also cheap enough - these are the two jobs I would get them to do.