Legacy GT Timing belt question

[Guest]

dammit i think i just got ****ed over by my mechanic

I took my legacy GT to him cos there was quite a bad oil leak. He rings me & tells me he might as well change the timing belt, tensioner etc while hes at it.

The cars done 170,000km's so I think he assumed it had been changed last at 100,000km. It had actually been changed at 140,000km so the belt is 30,000 km old when they dont need to be changed until they're 100,000km old. I only drive around 10,000km in year so I had 7 years left on that belt

He obviously didnt check his records of when he changed it last or he was just pulling a sly one. I should've remembered myself but my memory sux.

I'm now down $300 for something that didnt even need changing

[ODB]

if he changed your cambelt and tensioner for $300 then i think you came off best cos it usually costs a HECK of a lot more!

[Guest]

well when i think of it it actually wouldve be closer to $500 when GST & labour is included.

Plus the belt he changed was only 30,000 km's old so it had another 70000kms in it!!

Considering I only drive about 10000km's a year it wouldve lasted about 7 more years Should I ring him & complain & try & get some money back? I only took it into him because of an oil leak & ended up spending way more for no extra benefit whatsoever

[kiwisurf]

Where was the leak??? Was the belt comtaminated???

If the leak was any where in the front of the engine and I had the belt off to fix it I WOULD def reccomend you replace it!

100km is not a magic number when a belt fails....they can go more....and they can go alot less!

[Guest]

the mechanic never mentioned anything about oil on the belt. He just said he removed the rocket covers & replaced some seals blah blah (i know jack shit about cars so excuse my crappy explanation). He said he might as well change the belt while hes at it. As the car has done 170000km i think he assumed the belt was done last at 100000km & was almost due to be replaced. If he had checked his records first he would've seen he last changed it at 140000km. Its partly my fault I should remember this kind of stuff but I totally forgot.

[Jimbob]

Was it the front crank seal. If so the cambelt would have been removed to get to it

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[Jimbob]

And if it was that seal the old belt could have very likley got oil on it

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[madmike]

LOL... ROCKET COVER GASKET...

Pretty specialized job that. The real trick is taking them off without letting the rockets out.

[Guest]

 madmike said:

LOL... ROCKET COVER GASKET...

Pretty specialized job that. The real trick is taking them off without letting the rockets out.

lol i just found out the proper name was rocker covers not long after I posted that lol

[Flippymoi]

I wouldn't necessarily blame the mechanic. Almost everyone has the cambelt done at 100k intervals. if you couldn't remember that the belt was done then not surprising that he didn't and I doubt mechanics are the best record keepers.

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[DRFVDR]

 Flippymoi said:

I wouldn't necessarily blame the mechanic. Almost everyone has the cambelt done at 100k intervals. if you couldn't remember that the belt was done then not surprising that he didn't and I doubt mechanics are the best record keepers.

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thats a fairly bold statement

I am a mechanic

i HAVE to keep records and do so.

[Flippymoi]

 We are borg']

[quote name='Flippymoi said:

I wouldn't necessarily blame the mechanic. Almost everyone has the cambelt done at 100k intervals. if you couldn't remember that the belt was done then not surprising that he didn't and I doubt mechanics are the best record keepers.

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/quote]

thats a fairly bold statement

I am a mechanic

i HAVE to keep records and do so.

My apologies. Just my experience mechanics keep records but looking back at them when the time comes is another story. The last one was an austrian tank mechanic called manfred so maybe I just need to be more selective!

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