well the Nissan garage the other day rang to say it was about time we had a new timing chain on our Xtrail 1.6 diesel car. Strange I thought as it has only done about 35,000 miles but the age etc. Better to have that done than the engine wrecked
So it went in today for the work to be carried out. Just had a phone call saying they want the car for another day as they have to get another part for it.
Now to me a main dealers should have all the parts needed ready to fit, so I suspect they broke something and have to get another , also saying it is not going to cost us any more doubles my suspicions but we no doubt won’t be told the truth.
hopefully they wreck the car and we get a brand new replacement!!! As long as I keep the number plate B3 DOG which is special to me as B for Barry my name 3 for the number of Afghan hounds we had at the time and DOG is obvious
That seems a somewhat low milage for changing a timing chain. Now a cam belt, yes maybe, but not a chain. My Parhfinder has covered around 80k miles and the timing chain sounds smooth and tick-over is perfect. I asked my grandson who runs our service dept and he said for all variants 10yrs would be the normal time before changing, but if a belt was fitted then halve that time.
Timing chains should last the life of the engine, timing belts have service interval’s usually 5000/10000 miles , check your handbook, it would make sense to have the water pump done at the same time as it usually involves removing to get to the belt…
Ok, get this, our Moho is based on a Fiat Ducato, this is from Google
"The maintenance schedule in the vehicle handbook says "irrespective of the mileage the timing drive belt must be changed at least every 4 years for heavy duty use or at least every 5 years ".
Ours is a 19 reg so is coming up to five years old, but, has done 5200 miles, the belt change costs a £1000.00 what would you do?
Depends, in the words of Dirty Harry, “ do you feel lucky” , if the belt goes the pistons will meet the valves with catastrophic results, unless yours is a non tolerance engine, it will be a complete strip down of the engine to repair any damage, which you won’t know until it’s taken apart, I imagine it will cost far more than it would to change the belt, the reason manufacturers give mileage or time intervals is because cam belts deteriorate with age…
Hi Primus1, I think this, 5000 miles is no mileage for any engine, even after 5 years, when the mechanics unbolt everything to change the belt, they only have to miss one thing and you will have more problems than before, this happened before during a clutch change on a Mondeo when tightening up an engine mount was overlooked.
Yes 5k is a bit low, it does depend on the manufacturer recommendation for timing belts, Ford and Peugeot use wet belts, ( belts that run in oil) these used to have intervals of 100k miles but I think that was reduced ,
I think changing Cambelts has become fashionable, for the sake of it, my van had 70000 miles on it when the Camshaft Oil seal started leaking, the Cambelt had to be removed to repair this, the mechanic replaced the Cambelt because it was removed anyway but said, there was nothing wrong with the original.
The wording alone does sound fishy to me. It’s not “about time” to exchange the chain when there are just 35,000 miles on the clock. The chain is meant to run for the car’s lifetime and only gets replaced as a measure of precaution beyond a mileage of 150,000 or if there’re clear symptoms of wear. Did you hear or notice those when starting the engine? Did the garage and informed you about them? If not, it might indeed be a rip-off.
We had loads of estimated mileage left on our Ford Transit as we packed it for our Journey to Spain.
One BT engineer said ignore that and get it changed we have had many Cams go well within the suggested mileage…
Warning Warning…Ours went miles from nowhere on a Spainish bypass but luckily had cover with the AA so ended up in a Hotel in Zarragoza for nearly 10 days because of Fiestas and such…
The repair was the start of our motoring troubles though!
Dachs
I think also your right ,but it is Sue’s car after I handed it over to her because of what the eye surgeon said. I had a stent put behind one eye due to glaucoma, and he was going to inform the DVLA I was not going to be allowed to drive any more, which he never did. but that is another story. so Sue decided to have the work done.
with timing belt, and I have change many back in the past. One cannot see how bad a timing belt is by just looking at it in situ. Once removed and bent will be the only time to show up and minor splits starting. The number I have changed and shown the car owner how bad it was made them realise how close they came to a destroyed engine.
