asked for several quotes online and the difference between them is amazing.

 

highest quoted £415   inc Belt,all tensioners,water pump and labour, 1 year warranty on the work + whatever guarantee comes on the parts (manufacturer parts).

 

lowest quoted  £167 +vat inc belt,all tensioners,water pump and  labour, 1 year warranty on the work + whatever guarantee comes on the parts  (om quality parts)

 

how can there be such a difference ?

 

looked at the garage who gave cheapest quote and they have been going for 4 years and have good feedback

they will also collect the car and drop it off when finished.

 

surely this is TOO cheap?

 

 

£167 + Clueless George's cut is about the retail cost of parts for a full belt kit plus water pump!

£167 + VAT seems crazy low to me.

The parts are about £90+VAT or so IIRC if using copy parts.

Who on earth is going to do a timing belt, including collecting and dropping the car off for about £80?

i know seems unbelievably low.. was looking for prices as payday in 2 weeks and would put my mind at ease to get it done then...

 

but @ £167 ......... im tempted to go short this month and get it done...

 

worried though as at that price how much can you rely on it? lol

That's such a crazy price that I'd just have to take a chance, ask for ALL the old parts back, that way you know it's been done and give 'em a twenty pound cash tip if the service is good.

£167 + VAT seems crazy low to me.

The parts are about £90+VAT or so IIRC if using copy parts.

Who on earth is going to do a timing belt, including collecting and dropping the car off for about £80?

£90 will get you the OEM kit.

Aftermarket kits are £50ish (trade). If you can do the job in 2 hours, that's roughly £60/hour.

Find out what kit they are using.

If you can do the job in 2 hours, that's roughly £60/hour.

 

How long would you say a Cambelt change takes?

I thought it was more than 2 hours.

How long would you say a Cambelt change takes?

I thought it was more than 2 hours.

Book time is much longer.

It depends on the engine, but you can easily do one in 2.5 hours if you are used to doing them. Getting down to 2 hours is not too difficult.

My record is 1h51m on an ASV, but that was down to luck as much as anything else (hot engine, timing was right first time, previous job was also ASV timing belt).

Cheers, think I am paying too much then.

Labour around 100-150 sounds good value to me, 415 seems far to steep to me

Me personally, I buy all my parts so only pay Labour costs

I also like to stand and watch whenever my car is worked on, they don't tell me to come back later anymore as they know I'm stubborn but it is my pride and joy were talking about

Use the garage and build a relationship and I'm sure through regular custom they will sort you out on other jobs

Edited 6 April, 201412 yr by Jay29

It does sound rather cheap but...

The parts @ trade will cost peanuts. Even genuine VW/Skoda are cheaper than you might expect.

 

The fluctuation in price is simply how much the labour rate is (can vary from as low as £30 an hour at a independent to £70+ at a hour main dealer!) and how much mark up they add to the parts they are supplying (yes they also make a profit on the parts)

 

As for parts, personally I'd go with GATES or genuine.

I went to skoda and got charged £400 all in

And your happy about that?! Lol. No offence, but £400 is a LOT for what the parts cost and the actual work involved! Should be £250-£300 maximum really!

Well yeah as the car has a full service history with skoda including two cambelt changes by skoda so why not keep it up, yeah I know it's a lot of money but it's done and done to skodas standards

I'm paying £300 next week, all genuine parts used etc

By the way, here's my last experience with SKF cambelt + coolant pump + roller's kit (for my BBZ 1.4L 16V petrol engine):

 -pump started to leak a bit' after 60'000km (through bypass and/or paper seal; disliked that seal from beginning; old OEM pump was with o-ring);

 -camshaft belt's tensioner dropped out excess of grease;

 -one of rollers (smallest, with lever) have traces of wear.

With a.m.repair new coolant G12+ was filled-in (since 4 years have gone anyway and looked nonsense to fill-back old coolant).

 

Now is just 13'000km left til 180'000km when will replace all that a.m.stuff to other brand.

I charge £250 with genuine bits for cambelt kit + £280 with pump.. thats me doing it as a side job with no overheads and getting genuine bits with better than trade discount. I wouldnt do it for less so theres no way the £167+ vat is genuine bits.. book time is around 2.8. I can do em in less than an hour at work with air tools and a ramp but it takes at least 1.5 hours at side of the road

wouldnt use non gen bits for a belt + def not a water pump. People think the genuine pastic pumps are rubbish because they can fail so they put non gen metal type pumps in.. untill they fail and **** up the engine block completely.. they are plastic for a reason so they are fail safe + dont damage anything if they do go

Fot what it's worth,  I had my

 

cambelt + waterpump + auxilary belt (it was looking tired!) done for £380 two weeks ago.      That was my local garage, (used to be a VW garage) and I asked for OEM parts to be used