Good job I was sitting down!

[Minxy]

We had our A-class belt done by 'Advance' in Hull in October - they are ex-Fiat technicians so weren't phased at all by the job. The cost was £778 including water pump, MOT and some bulbs in the high level brake light which they also cleaned up as it was a bit corroded, as well as other little jobs they didn't charge for. Very happy with them and will certainly use them in the future for all our stuff.

I assume this is too great a distance for you but if not might be worth sounding them out for doing yours as even with travel it's likely to be cheaper.

 

[jockaneezer]

Given that it's doing the same job as a belt, do the chains need to be big? It's only taking a small amount of the engine power to drive the valves.

It's becoming something of a recognised fault that the cam chains on the RR's and some BM's are just too light for the job, not helped by ludicrously extended oil change intervals ?
The "Car Edition" on YouTube have just stripped a RR engine with a snapped chain at only 70k miles (in all fairness, it didn't look to have been regularly serviced though ?) while the one in my old van is supposedly good for 200k ?
It does seem that some manufactures are designing in more and more sub standard parts (just look at how much plastic is involved in an engine now) that will fail after the warranty/lease period is up ?
Engines I've had apart in the past generally had bonded rubber on spring steel chain tensioners not injection moulded plastic bits, designed just enough to do the job, and no more ?
I think there's a couple of companies that are offering cam chain kits for some of the wet belt motors now, so there is a need for improvement from the wet belt situation ?

 

[Guigsy]

It's becoming something of a recognised fault that the cam chains on the RR's and some BM's are just too light for the job, not helped by ludicrously extended oil change intervals ?
The "Car Edition" on YouTube have just stripped a RR engine with a snapped chain at only 70k miles (in all fairness, it didn't look to have been regularly serviced though ?) while the one in my old van is supposedly good for 200k ?
It does seem that some manufactures are designing in more and more sub standard parts (just look at how much plastic is involved in an engine now) that will fail after the warranty/lease period is up ?
Engines I've had apart in the past generally had bonded rubber on spring steel chain tensioners not injection moulded plastic bits, designed just enough to do the job, and no more ?
I think there's a couple of companies that are offering cam chain kits for some of the wet belt motors now, so there is a need for improvement from the wet belt situation ?

BMWs have been destroying chains for over 20 years. It's mainly down to insufficient maintenance. Oil intervals are a bit long if you're just doing short trips all the time. And services get stretched out because the first owner is always a lease and they don't care. It'll be someone else's problem by the time it becomes an issue.