Hi folks, 

 

I'd appreciate your thoughts . . .

My Superb has developed a slow water leak.  It's under warranty until the end of November.  

The local skoda garage called today to say that the waterpump is covered under warranty, but the timing belt isn't.  They will charge me £220 for the parts needed to replace the timing belt, the labour will be free.  

I'm feeling a bit put out with this.  If the water pump hadn't failed the timing belt should be good for a long while yet, the car's only just covered 40K miles.  

Has anyone else me this before?  

 

Thanks for any and all replies.  

 

Tony

Ask them what is wrong with the timing belt?

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thanks trundlenut, they didn't mention any fault with the belt over the phone. Just that they would need to replace it when they did the water pump?

Either there is a problem with it such that it cannot be reused, or it is effectively consequential damage caused by the failed water pump.

It's like your washing machine flooding your kitchen then your insurance ask you to pay to replace the carpet because only the washing machine is faulty.

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Its not £220 for a timing belt and idlers i'm sure !

 

It would be nonsense to replace the water pump and refit the old belt

Hmmm, thanks.  I'm guessing a timing belt should last considerably longer than 40K miles?  Never owned a skoda before, but my previous cars had replacements schedules of around 70K or 80K

Depends on the engine but can be from 60k to about 140k miles or 4/5 years.

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£220 sounds right genuine kit Inc vat. I agree with Trundlenut The Timing Belt has been contaminated with coolant and is now consequential damage. Skoda warranty will pay for the belt and water pump and coolant but they will not pay for the tensioner or rollers unless they are faulty.

As the water pump is driven by the timing belt they are right in saying the belt requires replacing as well,there is no labour charge as they have to remove the belt to replace the water pump,yes it would have lasted more than 40,000 miles but that doesnt matter in this case,£220 for main dealer parts will be about right price wise,isnt it roughly £400 for a belt change inc parts at a dealer. 

£220 sounds right genuine kit Inc vat. I agree with Trundlenut The Timing Belt has been contaminated with coolant and is now consequential damage. Skoda warranty will pay for the belt and water pump and coolant but they will not pay for the tensioner or rollers unless they are faulty.

cheers!  Do you know where I can find details of the skoda warranty, it's handy to be able to have it in front of me when I call the stealers in the morning.  

 

BNo worries, just found it!

Edited 7 October, 201411 yr by brotherwarren

Its not £220 for a timing belt and idlers i'm sure !

 

It would be nonsense to replace the water pump and refit the old belt

Sounds about right to me, I'm not sure about that specific car but on the 1.8T engines a genuine kit including the hydraulic tensioner is the best part of £300 and that's not including the pump.

Sounds like a joke to me.

I would camp in the dealers and start getting louder and louder until it was sorted.

No would not be accepted.

It's £359 to replace the timing belt that's parts and labour so if the parts are £220 that leaves £140 for the labour which doesn't seem right to me

How old is the car?

 

Phil

As above, a cambelt change on Skoda's national pricing policy is £359.

 

Deduct the £220 cost of the parts and you are left with £140.

 

The average hourly labour rate at a Skoda main dealer is close to £100.

 

I'm guessing it will take a technician more than an hour and a half to change a cambelt?

 

Ring up another dealers parts department and ask for a price for the full cambelt kit to compare.

Hmm.......£140 dosent sound a lot does it,unless its a 2 hour job on the 1.6 then £70 a hour is possible for a dealer. 

The warranty my dealer gave on my car when I bought it second hand at 3 years old covered replacing the timing belt when the water pump developed a leak. Same symptoms as you, a slow coolant leak. This was an Irish Skoda dealership though, and a lot of the reason I bought from them was because I got the impression they were interested in what they sold and willing to provide proper customer service - they also sell Mercedes and Audi, so maybe it comes from this. I didn't pay a penny and got to have a go in a month old bluemotion TSI Polo (Not massively more fuel efficient than the CR170 until you hit stop start traffic surprisingly, but no torque to speak of) for the day while it was being sorted :p... I did pay a lot more than anyone who buys in the UK would need to pay to buy the car initially though.

Edited 7 October, 201411 yr by psycholist

How old is the car?

Phil

It's a 61 plate. 3 yo in November.

Hmm.......£140 dosent sound a lot does it,unless its a 2 hour job on the 1.6 then £70 a hour is possible for a dealer.

It's 220 for parts. The labour is being charged to the water pump, which they are covering under warranty.

It's 220 for parts. The labour is being charged to the water pump, which they are covering under warranty.

Yes we understand but you are missing the point

If the dealer is trying to charge £220 for a timing belt kit then they must be charging some of the labour for doing the water pump job , either that or normal dealers are charging less than £50 per hour when doing routine belt changes

Again ask for an explanation as to why the full timing belt kit is required.

Then inform the garage that you will be charging them for delivery to and collection from their garage of your car, out of pocket expenses incurred as a result of the water pump failing, telephone calls and the time spent dealing with the issue. Also to ensure that the work has been completed correctly this time you will organise a 3rd party inspection of the work and all parts used and removed, this will charged at cost +20%.

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Oh and obviously you are prepared to accept reasonable use of the vehicle during the repairs, such as a test drive, but you expect this to be kept to minimum, say 5 miles or less and fuel use should consummate with such usage. Any additional mileage or fuel usage must be agreed with in advance and will be chargeable at rates to be agreed, say 45p/mile and cost +20% for fuel.

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Why not ring up the parts department at the same Skoda dealer, and get a price from them?

Yes that's correct they are charging about £50 an hour. That's menu pricing! Average labour time is 2.5 hour's. Menu pricing is to make Skoda owners go to the local dealer and not the little garages. Xxxxxx

"The average hourly labour rate at a Skoda main dealer is close to £100."

 

I dont know which Skoda dealer you have been using but we charge £69. ph