How much should i pay for a cambelt change?

[nutter]

I did it on my tubby couple of weeks back. It's a fiddly job and you have remove one of the engine mounts and support the engine on one side. It took me around 4 hours to do in my garage (with a nice heater). So i reckon any trusted mechanic could polish it off in around 3.5 hours (as neil said on the uk car). The hardest part is getting the cam timing right and getting the tensioner back on! I would get a print out from the Toyota manual on how to do it and give it to whatever garage you take the car to. The manual shows torque settings and a wierd thing you have to do to get the tensioner back on.

HTH

[reggie]

A cam belt change isn't a specialist job. Anybody can remove a dozen or so bolts to take the outer cover off, another few bolts to remove the tensioner (or simply hold it in tension if you're not replacing it) and then take a belt off and put a new one on. If you do need to replace the tensioner, this can increase the price as the Mk1 tensioner costs around £100 (dunno about a Mk2).

For a DIY'er it's a bit awkward as you are always working in a limited amount of space when doing jobs like these but, given the choice, I would do the job myself. I bought all the parts for my Mk1 as I am almost at 120k miles but upon inspection of my belt I can't see any reason why the job can't wait until the summer A random mechanic can do the job quite easily in a couple of hours so if Toyota are fitting a £30 belt and charging you £230 to fit it, you're paying about £100/hour labour. I find that a bit steep personally.

I totally agree with jimGTS though. If you're even a little unsure, get a proffessional to do this. Do not try it yourself as you could break the engine in expensive new ways.

[^Trickster^]

I havent had time to read the full post so im not sure if someone has already mentioned this, but if you can use some tools have have a day to spare you can do it yourself its not that difficult to do.

Mine has been catching on the covers and it only took me an hour and a half to get the engine mount off the bottom pulley and the covers off to get to the timing belt, and its an easy engine to time aswell, people moan on about the tensioners being a nightmare but ive never had a problem myself.

Graeme

[Hedgehog Dodger]

I paid £450 for a cambelt change and a full service on my tubby in 2003 at a Toyota garage in Derby. Okay, so it was a heck of a lot of money, but I would rather entrust Toyota with my car for certain work rather than try and save a few quid by going to some cheap garage underneath the railway arches and have them toss the car about.

I've gone down the cheap route with cars in the past, and it's always cost me more in the long run. Each to their own, I guess, and all depends on how much money you have to spend on the essentials!

[Sidewinder]

[Raistlin]

How do you know when your cam belt needs changing, I belive that its every 60K miles but is there a way you can know if it needs doing?

[^Trickster^]

You cant tell when it needs doing, after a thousand miles the writing is all worn off it anyway!

[m4rcus]

Morning,

So has anyone got the print out from the Toyota manual handy? I'm thinking about sorting this myself as toyota were going to charge me £310 (ish). I'm not that great with engines, but my brother is, which is good as he's crap with pcs and he needs a new one sorted

M - 95 UK N/A

[JohnnyC]

This may help:

http://www.mr2-tech.com/bgb/mechanical/ ... ical/8.htm

Although there may be better guides on the internet somewhere...

[Jon Bradley]

I reckon a lot of garages rush jobs on cars because "they know what theyre doing" so arent as careful as if you do it at home. Ive never paid a garage to do any work... I just get my Haynes out and spend about 6 times too long to do a job, and post a messagehere if i have any queries along the way... i.e. I'm REALLY careful. Not only am I saving wads of cash, I'm also getting the jobs done to a high standard and learning a lot in the process.... Now if I break down at least i will be able to have a pop at fixing the problem rather than having to wait for AA!

[SFLee]

Now if I break down at least i will be able to have a pop at fixing the problem rather than having to wait for AA!

assurming you got all the tool you needed with you

I have mine done at toyota , and they have to do it 3 time before they got the timing right

[steve b]

I did it on my tubby couple of weeks back. It's a fiddly job and you have remove one of the engine mounts and support the engine on one side. It took me around 4 hours to do in my garage (with a nice heater). So i reckon any trusted mechanic could polish it off in around 3.5 hours (as neil said on the uk car). The hardest part is getting the cam timing right and getting the tensioner back on! I would get a print out from the Toyota manual on how to do it and give it to whatever garage you take the car to. The manual shows torque settings and a wierd thing you have to do to get the tensioner back on.

HTH

Total agreement, I did my own cambelt on my n/a and it wasn't hard, as you said hardest part is getting the timing right but its not long before you figure it out. I now have a turbo and there is no real difference the engine mounts the same, the belt covers the same indeed its all the same bar the intercooler thats not in the way anyway.

One thing to note buy an inspection mirror and use a toyota manual. Put the car up on axle stands and have a spare jack to hand so you can precisely adjust the height of the engine once you remove the mounting.

Once paid to have a supposed leaky water pump fixed and this involves cambelt off and i was charge £120 at an independant garage.