39 minutes ago, Stubod said:

..I think his point was that the water pump replacement is "relatively" low cost if you are doing the cambelt (ie parts ony), if you change it at the same time as you almost get the labour cost "for free" while doing the cambelt. Otherwise you end up with another rather large labour charge if you end up replacing the pump at a later date??

Considering the water pump on 1.4 , 1.5 TSI engines is not driven by the cam belt and is on the other end of the engine there is absolutely no reason to change it unnecessarily when replacing cam belt.

18 hours ago, Urrell said:

No water pump needed as cam belt does not run on it.

 

Didn't know that @Urrell, thanks. 

 

19 hours ago, Stubod said:

He also advised the cambelt was good for at least 70k miles regardless of age

 

I'd be worried about the 'regardless of age' thing, given what it's made of. But that's just me, and I'm not a mechanic. 🤷‍♂️

20 hours ago, Stubod said:

He also advised the cambelt was good for at least 70k miles regardless of age

That's what it said in my manual for my 2005 Fabia I had before the Yeti, but when I got a call from the garage that it was time for a cambelt change I argued with him about what it said in the manual, he said Skoda were changing them all to 5 years!

just a quick point on this topic,I worked on FLT’s for 15+ years ,all our engines where VW, we had to change cam belts at 3000hrs = 30,000 Km , the kits we got from VW always had a water pump included in the box, it was standard to change them at the time as it was considered false economy not to, you wouldn’t want to go back to customer and have to change it having just done the cambelt!, it is so simple to do as well, 3x 6mm nuts, new one in your left hand ,wobble the old one out and pop the new one in, 30 secs max, you don’t even lose a cup of fluid,quite a few tried it and it came back to biting them on their A*se, I could understand if it was difficult but as I’ve said easy, gives you peace of mind as well

 

 

 

@Wingnut73ukWas this Fork Lift Trucks you worked on?

 

Timing belt & Water Pump changes @ 18,441 miles.   

Would that many miles in a FLT not take many more than 3,000 hours at the speed the time engines run and are not going anyplace?

 

 

3000 hours of engine running time he has equated to 30000kms for a vehicle that would not be equipped with an engine hour meter, not an unreasonable proposition for a modern vehicle in city traffic.

 

Given the ECU records how many hours the engine has run for it would be far better to schedule timing belt changes on that than miles/kms.

@J.R.Modern traffic doing better than a 50 mph average speed maybe would do the 3,000 hours = 30,000 km. That is not City Traffic.

That was why i was asking if it was Fork Lift Truck that where having the replacements carried out. 

 

With Road Going Vehicles, cars / taxis / delivery vehicles it would make total sense to go buy engine running time as well as miles / km covered.

Even more to factory in Stop / Start,  or length or trips, short or long, like you might do with Oil & Filter changes.

 

As it is PHEV's from VW Group have the 1.4 TSI engines with Fixed Service Intervals for Oil & Filter changes, so at 9,400 miles / 12 months, soonest, some even say 8,000 miles.

 

Funny thing there is that some cars might do almost all the miles / km using electric and short trips of under 25 miles and never have the engine fire up for more than a few minutes. 

Edited 25 October, 20223 yr by roottoot

👍

Edited 25 October, 20223 yr by J.R.

31 minutes ago, roottoot said:

Modern traffic doing better than a 50 mph average speed maybe would do the 3,000 hours = 30,000 km. That is not City Traffic.

80km/h would do 30000 kms in 375 hours not 3000, that is why I chose city traffic.

 

Regardless we agree that engine running hours is a lot more sensible, I have a very old Kubota micro-tractor which were it a vehicle looks like it has done several million miles without any maintenance, the engine hour counter only shows 3486 hours, its quite clever though as any cold start using the glowplugs increases the count in front of your eyes, the longer you engage the glowplugs the higher it counts.

They equated the speed. At an average of 10 KPH, which most are restricted to for warehouse work, some 24hr operations, eg food production would have 3 cam belts per year and on multi truck sites 40 plus trucks a never ending job, gas/petrol engines  2 hrs max, diesels 5 hrs labour time

Nothing really to do with VW Group TDI's or TSI's then.

 

Much of the issues over the years has been them requiring and sourcing rather gash belts, chains, tensioners and water pumps for road vehicles, and they still are to this very day. 

Fundamental design, manufacturing, material failures and penny / euro pinching hence crap quality / longevity.

They even had the nerve at times to blame the wrong coolants.  That was coolants they specified and sourced and factory filled. 

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/426322-recall-on-diesel-cooling-issues

 

Edited 25 October, 20223 yr by roottoot

Well – after my £600 timing belt & water pump change by Skoda, my MOT at Skoda found "a small leak coming from the crank shaft oil seal". Skoda is now saying another £734 is required, which "requires stripping off the new timing belt" that they just put on.  Would the crank shaft seal not be part an integral part of Skoda's Timing belt replacement kit & service, and thus under warrantee for the service, if the timing belt needs to be removed to replace the now leaking Camshaft seal, which was fine before the work was carried out?

 

I replaced the water pump along with the timing belt, specifically to avoid having to re-do this job, but now Skoda is telling me the camshaft seal is not part of the timing belt & water pump kit, even though the timing belt now has to be re-removed to replaced the camshaft seal. This is very strange. Why not tell customers to change the cam shaft seal, as well as the water pump, if this is not part of the £600 timing belt replacement ... as I am now back to square one, for double the cost.

 

If anyone has done this job or can confirm if the camshaft seal is in fact part pf the timing belt kit, please offer suggestions, advice, as to how I might respond to Skoda.

 

 

 

..would be surprised if the camshaft seal is part of timing change kit??

All my years servicing VW engines, the timing belt kit consisted off, Belt,Water pump, idler and tensioner pulley, never changed a crank oil seal in 15 years, 

but no not part of the kit sorry,

sure its crankshaft and not timing cover oil seal?

How long between timing belt change and MOT?

 

If they were done on same visit to dealers, they ought to have spotted the leak during the belt change and asked you to approve repair. 

If there was any time gap then you'll struggle to prove that the leak didn't happen separately, unrelatedly.

 

Also need to be sure which seal is affected,  you mention crankshaft and camshaft.

Thanks guys. “crank shaft” seal is what skoda said (not sure why I said camshaft).

 

My MOT where they found the leak came 14 months after the timing belt repair (which has a 2 year warrantee in parts & labour), and timing belts are only replaced every 5 years, as per this thread => Good question about “timing cover oil seal”, as that seems most plausible.

 

How would I be certain?  If skoda says it’s the crank shaft, and costs £734 to fix (by removing timing belt, and it’s cover oil seal) how could I find out what seal it really is, before work is carried out? (If it’s the timing cover seal, then that would be repaired under warrantee of the job just done.)

I think timing covers only have oil seals when they contain timing chains, not belts.

The crankshaft seal would be behind the bottom pulley and belt drive so would not be changed with the belt.(I think)

Also 14 months is quite a while later for the leak to be found so I dont think you can be blaming the cam belt change for causing it?

Does the repair price include a new belt and water pump? As even with the last one only having done 14 months ago I think it would be silly to not replace yet again, as the vast majority of the cost will be the labour.

 

I've got a bit fed up with Skodas rates for their work.

They now quote £500 flat charge for timing belt replacement any model, a smaller local garage that I trust quoted £270 for my 1.2 petrol Yeti.

Skoda also quoted me £100 for the spark plugs to be changed at the last service.

I did it for £42 and 15 mins of my time.

Edited 20 March, 20233 yr by Yeti333

Yes – back to a local mechanic is where I am headed. I've always had a local mechanic, but I've moved so much in the last few years, that I enjoyed taking it into any Skoda. Sadly, they are all independent, and awkwardly don't update their VW system, so every time I go in, they tell me I need the service that I just did the previous time – which fully defeats the purpose of the dealership service.

 

The reason I was asking, is because I have never had that leak before, and it seemed odd to be told I have a leak in the exact area that was last serviced, requiring the exact same work to be re-done. Next time (or this time, I will have the Crank Shaft seal done with the timing belt if that is indeed the seal leak). Having done a lot of mechanical in my younger days, to me this likely means they either didn't tighten something, or they pinched / bent or re-used a seal. 

 

Will update when my local mechanic recommends something (likely less expensive).

 

thanks guys – all very helpful.

@Yeti333

Skoda fixed price offer on Spark Plugs is now £120. 

 

As to £ 500 flat rate Timing Belt replacement any model  forget that, think more like £1,000 (even near to £1,200) on a 1.5 TSI ACT, and that is not including a water pump which is not required. 

Petrol 1.2 TSI might be the cheapest, and maybe a bit more on a 1.0TSI or 1.4 TSI. and more on a 1.4 TSI ACT. but a lot more on a 1.5 TSI ACT when it is over 6 hours labour, some are still saying 7.5 hours.

(There are Service Desk staff quoting £555, but they will soon find out that is a mistake on their part.)

 

Then there are those Official Repairers with their own prices and no longer 'Participating Dealers' doing  'Skoda Fixed Price Servicing & Maintenance, 3-10 year old cars. 

 

 

 

 

Edited 20 March, 20233 yr by toot

https://lvsag.co.uk/services/service-repair/

This is our local Independent VAG service centre LVSAG at Lincoln service rates.
I get them to do anything I would rather not do myself like cam-belt change

19 hours ago, JamesWood said:

Well – after my £600 timing belt & water pump change by Skoda, my MOT at Skoda found "a small leak coming from the crank shaft oil seal".

 

 

 

 

Yes it is a common problem with the EA288 but why didn't the ****ers do it when the belt was off, that bloody negligent!

 

 

16 hours ago, JamesWood said:

Having done a lot of mechanical in my younger days, to me this likely means they either didn't tighten something, or they pinched / bent or re-used a seal. 

I do not think they would disturb anything to do with the crankshaft oil seal.