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General Timing Belt - When to Replace?

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General Timing Belt - When to Replace?

Amen to what Maxi said - it was a bulb for goodness sake! I haven't had a bulb, or anything else fail on my "piece of junk" in nearly 6 years.
I wonder if any car is a good choice for long term ownership. Something German? How about the £500 my son had to pay to have a new waterpump on his 10 year old 3 series, after it stranded him on a motorway?
 
There is no cheap motoring. If you buy new premium car - the cost is obvious; if you buy cheap new car- substandard parts may have been used to make it so cheap, so it can fail; if you buy second hand car of any brand - you never know what might go wrong and it time something will. There are no cheap options! Ride a bicycle maybe?;)
 
TrevC said:
Amen to what Maxi said - it was a bulb for goodness sake! I haven't had a bulb, or anything else fail on my "piece of junk" in nearly 6 years.
I wonder if any car is a good choice for long term ownership. Something German? How about the £500 my son had to pay to have a new waterpump on his 10 year old 3 series, after it stranded him on a motorway?
Click to expand...
I do still get notifications on the forum and have a lurk occasionally, the state of this forum is quite sad.

I call a side a spade and rather than trying to alarm people by saying that people should have a tool kit and know how to use it, i tried to tell people how mind blowingly easy basic maintenance on the 500 is. If you can open a jar of pickles and use a measuring jug then you're overqualified to change the oil and filter on a 500 let alone a little bulb.

How many Fiatforum people does it take to change a bulb? 3. 1 to tell you that it's a bad idea to own one out of warranty, 1 to tell that you that you MUST take the wheel off because he can't do it without taking the wheel off and a third one just to stick their hand up there and actually do it.
 
Just had my car looked at by another mechanic friend. (3 said the noise is more a 'whining' noise and it's doing it in any gear. He took off my aux belt to check if it was that, the air con pump, etc, and it still made that noise.

He thinks it could be the waterpump, maybe it was a cheaper one used.

Anybody any idea?!
 
It was whining when revving stationary tonight �� I'm ebrrssed to drive it like this in case other people can hear it
 
TrevC said:
Amen to what Maxi said - it was a bulb for goodness sake! I haven't had a bulb, or anything else fail on my "piece of junk" in nearly 6 years.
I wonder if any car is a good choice for long term ownership. Something German? How about the £500 my son had to pay to have a new waterpump on his 10 year old 3 series, after it stranded him on a motorway?
Click to expand...
well to be fair 10 years for a water pump is pretty good = ))) i change mine every 5 years max =)
 
JNAnderson said:
It was whining when revving stationary tonight �� I'm ebrrssed to drive it like this in case other people can hear it
Click to expand...
My sister in-law had a 2012 1.2 Clio that I thought made quite the whine. It almost reminded me of an RC car. She had one or two 'bumps' over the years resulting in several new bumpers, light assemblies etc. Mostly cosmetic. Mechanically it drove fine. I remember her finding it odd when I questioned her about it. To her it was the normal sound of her car.

Its probably nothing to worry about. Maybe just down to the part change. Slightly different quality or maybe the fact that things have been loosened, removed and replaced.

Her cars still out there driving about somewhere so if yours is making a noise it's not the only one.
 
Kekybobo said:
My sister in-law had a 2012 1.2 Clio that I thought made quite the whine. It almost reminded me of an RC car. She had one or two 'bumps' over the years resulting in several new bumpers, light assemblies etc. Mostly cosmetic. Mechanically it drove fine. I remember her finding it odd when I questioned her about it. To her it was the normal sound of her car.

Its probably nothing to worry about. Maybe just down to the part change. Slightly different quality or maybe the fact that things have been loosened, removed and replaced.

Her cars still out there driving about somewhere so if yours is making a noise it's not the only one.
Click to expand...

I've never heard it do this before. I thought maybe I was paranoid but my boyfriend drove it tonight to check & said he can hear it. Took it to his friend mechanic and he thinks it's a cheap part. Spoke to the boy who fitted it, he'""
Look at it on Friday but said it won't be the first time he's been sold anoisy waterpump!

My old cars before this 2011 Fiat were 2001 & 2005 clio and they never did this ?
 
JNAnderson said:
I've never heard it do this before. I thought maybe I was paranoid but my boyfriend drove it tonight to check & said he can hear it. Took it to his friend mechanic and he thinks it's a cheap part. Spoke to the boy who fitted it, he'""
Look at it on Friday but said it won't be the first time he's been sold anoisy waterpump!

My old cars before this 2011 Fiat were 2001 & 2005 clio and they never did this ?
Click to expand...

it didn't do it BEFORE the parts were changed..;)

do you have confidence in the person who did the job..??:confused:

as it IS possible to induce these squeaks through over tensioning the belt.. :eek:

( my clio needed a waterpump ( oh ..and a radiator..)when I bought it, and the alternator failed 1.000 miles later.. - french "quality")

Charlie
 
ahmett said:
Insane! I would never let it go that long!

When the water pump of my Audi A2 was leaking it was like 7 years old!
Click to expand...

It's not a Fiat it's Japanese enough said.
It's had normal service parts, a radiator, lambda sensor, and several headlamp washer pumps everything still works @18 years old bar the stuck up electric aerial which is a faulty relay
 
Last edited:
ahmett said:
well to be fair 10 years for a water pump is pretty good = ))) i change mine every 5 years max =)
Click to expand...
Yes, Ahmett I'd agree that 10 years is fair enough. The point I was trying to make, not very clearly, is that any car will tend to develop faults as it gets older. I don't think buying a premium brand protects you from this, indeed they are generally more expensive to fix. The BMW water pump is electric, and cost about £300 from a motor factors. Our man also replaced the thermostat, which was about £50. Someone once told me that the cost of running a car are in proportion to its new price - wise words!

Just to be even handed, my son-in-law has a 10 year old 330d which he has run for about 2 years without any faults.
 
Ok... took it back to the mechanic tonight and noise is now gone.

Turns out, after taken off the timing belt and putting it back on, it still made the noise. He took the belt off again... and noticed a TWIG had somehow got stuck in the camshaft (I think he said), must've been when he changed belt.

Last question I'll ask, can this likely have caused damage to the belt, and will the belt be ok after being removed and put back?

Thank you
 
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