Cambelt query (1 Viewer)

[Trevor Wbm]

Cambelt on my Boxer snapped at around 30,000 miles, in 2018 on a 2004 vehicle, when in the possession of a previous owner. The bill for the engine rebuild was in the document pack I inherited. There's a school of thought that maintains that commercial vehicles designed to be thrashed every day do not take well to being parked up idle for most of the time, and it's the tyres and cambelts that can deteriorate.

Had mine replaced earlier this year, and will be sticking to five year intervals irrespective of mileage.

 

[Baggydave]

Our other car is a berlingo & its 10years or 100k For the belt.
1.6 hdi blue motion

 

[gus-lopez]

If the oils changed as service intervals it should NEVER need a chain.

No but tensioner can be made of shite material or guides are plastic Cheese.

but do cambelt perish like tyres.

Yes

 

[Phill D]

Why not, if you are having your vehicle maintained by a Fiat professional workshop and have maintenance carried out as per manufacture directive a Cam belt failing within a 5 year period is not wear and tear it is material failure as a customer you are keeping your part of the bargain.

I strongly suspect that the dealer and Fiat would cove such an eventuality but I would think that this would only be done if it was the belt that had snapped which would be pretty rare, if it was a case that debris had become between the belt and the pulley causing the belt to jump or a tensioner to fail or break that would be something else not all cam belt failures are down to a belt 'just failing' So the case for paying out becomes slimmer

I understand your thinking but I don’t believe any such maintenance is covered by more than 2 year period.
If the belt snaps it will cause quite a bit of damage included inside the belt cover so how try would know if it was caused by debris I am not sure.
Happy to be proven wrong,
do you have evidence that Fiat would cover cambelt breakage costs in event of it breaking within the 5 years.

 

[Coolcats]

I understand your thinking but I don’t believe any such maintenance is covered by more than 2 year period.
If the belt snaps it will cause quite a bit of damage included inside the belt cover so how try would know if it was caused by debris I am not sure.
Happy to be proven wrong,
do you have evidence that Fiat would cover cambelt breakage costs in event of it breaking within the 5 years.

Do you have any evidence they will not

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[Phill D]

Do you have any evidence they will not

Nope! We could go around this loop forever,
So we must agree to have a different view on this until one or other has reliable information to indicate differently.

 

[Garfields]

VW have just uped the mileage and changes from five years to something higher on their vehicles.
In the distant past some Ford engines were very prone to going before 48000 and they dropped the mileage to 36000 for changes.
In the very dim and distant past Austin /Rover cars had a habit of the belts going on their 1700 cc engines but at least they were a safe engine. Almost every time a belt failed the water pump was leaking. We thought the antifreeze was affecting the belts but it was never confirmed as far as I knew.
Some Honda v6 engines the belt was not a service item. and that was thirty years ago.

 

[andysam]

Manufacturers will spec what they can get away with. The VW T6 had (has?) a different replacement schedule for the belts in the UK and on the mainland EU even though using the exact same belt. As Garfields said, they recentlychanged from 4 years / 40k miles to 120k miles / 10 yrs (from memory)- a massive difference. The UK massively gets our pants pulled down, but if you want warranty you have to get it done when specced.

 

[Coolcats]

Nope! We could go around this loop forever,
So we must agree to have a different view on this until one or other has reliable information to indicate differently.

So this is where a manufacturer when something is out of warranty will provide a service or part as good will when it is a component failure some times it is covered in full some times in part. Having been at the end of such service and I will double check when I am next at a Fiat professional but if that cam belt snapped and the vehicle has been serviced in accordance with the manufacturer requirements the work would be covered. It happens so rarely it is one of those things they would be mad not to cover.

 

[Phill D]

So this is where a manufacturer when something is out of warranty will provide a service or part as good will when it is a component failure some times it is covered in full some times in part. Having been at the end of such service and I will double check when I am next at a Fiat professional but if that cam belt snapped and the vehicle has been serviced in accordance with the manufacturer requirements the work would be covered. It happens so rarely it is one of those things they would be mad not to cover.

I would welcome confirmation but I am sceptical that they would cover the damage to the engine which we have recently seen on a similar thread of the order of £12k.

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[Coolcats]

I would welcome confirmation but I am sceptical that they would cover the damage to the engine which we have recently seen on a similar thread of the order of £12k.

Had the vehicle always been maintained by a Fiat professional workshop In the way the manufacturer stipulated and what caused the cam belt failure.

 

[Phill D]

Had the vehicle always been maintained by a Fiat professional workshop In the way the manufacturer stipulated and what caused the cam belt failure.

No idea,

No point in me discussing any further as there appears to be no evidence either way.
except to say that you have more faith in FIAT than I do.

 

[Coolcats]

No idea,

No point in me discussing any further as there appears to be no evidence either way.
except to say that you have more faith in FIAT than I do.

Lol I was going to buy a Hymer on a Mercedes chassis absolutely no way was I going to buy a Fiat

All I can say is to my surprise I brought a Fiat and it is actually rather remarkably good, the wife hasn't made me eat the hat as I said I would do if we purchased a Fiat, and the Fiat professional Dealer (Adams Morey) I have found to be exemplary with thier customer service.......I am sure someone else will be a long shortly to say other wise but you can only say how you find I guess.

 

[Phill D]

Lol I was going to buy a Hymer on a Mercedes chassis absolutely no way was I going to buy a Fiat

All I can say is to my surprise I brought a Fiat and it is actually rather remarkably good, the wife hasn't made me eat the hat as I said I would do if we purchased a Fiat, and the Fiat professional Dealer (Adams Morey) I have found to be exemplary with thier customer service.......I am sure someone else will be a long shortly to say other wise but you can only say how you find I guess.

I was about to add the service is likely to depend very much upon the dealership rather than fiat.

 

[Phill D]

I will also add that I have been known to pat our fiat on the bonnet and think well done.

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[PaulW2]

I was about to add the service is likely to depend very much upon the dealership rather than fiat.

Quite. I haven’t always been that impressed with Mercedes’ service. Or that of 3 other premium manufacturers (Audi, BMW, Land Rover). Sometimes honest-to-goodness mainstream is all you want.

 

[Korova]

I had a nearly 7 year old, 5,000 mile cambelt snap. That was on an '02 2.8 jtd. £1,300 of damage caused. Probable cause was the low mileage the previous owner did after the first cambelt change. Like tyres I've been told that most rubber components need to keep moving to make them last.
I'll stick to 5 years for peace of mind.

 

[PaulW2]

I had a nearly 7 year old, 5,000 mile cambelt snap. That was on an '02 2.8 jtd. £1,300 of damage caused. Probable cause was the low mileage the previous owner did after the first cambelt change. Like tyres I've been told that most rubber components need to keep moving to make them last.
I'll stick to 5 years for peace of mind.

Agreed. When I bought my current van - 4 years after manufacture and 2 years after first registration - that was a topic of discussion. “But only 7k miles” they said. “But 4 years old - and look at what your policy says” I said. They replaced the cambelt. I wouldn’t let it go past 5 years.

 

[Joethejoiner]

Apologies if I've missed it but do people recommend using Fiat parts only ?

 

[denisejoe]

Not for the belt better companies out there ie Gates

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