The wife's car (w/ only 30,000 miles on it) has some weird problem with the balancing shaft belt and must have it replaced. It's under warranty so no worries.

However, the mechanic said that since they have to take the timing belt off to get to the balancing shaft belt, we should just replace the timing belt as well.

The replacement of the timing belt is supposed to be done at 60,000 miles. The mechanic is offering to "save us a lot of money" by just doing it now. Apparently, this isn't covered under the warranty.

It'll be about $250 + tax. (As opposed to $500 or so when 60,000 rolls around). Am I being bamboozled?

I have some good friends who are mechanics. Bamboozling runs rampant among this group. Thoughts?

Depending on the car, a timing belt can be a huge pain in the ass to replace. I shouldn't take more than an hour or two maximum to do though.

My brother is a mechanic. $500 is insane if you ask me.

You should have it done at 60K, but for less money.

Pure L wrote:The wife's car (w/ only 30,000 miles on it) has some weird problem with the balancing shaft belt and must have it replaced. It's under warranty so no worries.

However, the mechanic said that since they have to take the timing belt off to get to the balancing shaft belt, we should just replace the timing belt as well.

The replacement of the timing belt is supposed to be done at 60,000 miles. The mechanic is offering to "save us a lot of money" by just doing it now. Apparently, this isn't covered under the warranty.

It'll be about $250 + tax. (As opposed to $500 or so when 60,000 rolls around). Am I being bamboozled?

I have some good friends who are mechanics. Bamboozling runs rampant among this group. Thoughts?

Get a second opinion from another dealer that would be doing the warranty work.

I learned a timing belt lesson thru a friend. The lesson is that you don't want to have that belt go tits up whilst driving. On some cars you can do a lot of damage to the engine.

Please tell us what kind of car yer talking about.

Is it your car dealer's mechanic?

Those garages always shaft you. Get another quote elsewhere.

$250 seems far too much - if he is taking the timing belt off and putting it back on using labour paid for by warranty, shouldn't you just pay the parts cost of the belt?

Why not buy a timing belt yourself for $30 or whatever, and ask him to put it on as part of the job.

Just get it done. You will save money in the long run, and that part is very integral. If that would happen to fail, you will be replacing basically the whole top half of the motor, and that sucks. I had to replace the top half of a Mercedes 103 motor, and that was $1995 just for the completed cylinder head. I saved on labour though, I did it myself. $250 is not that bad for a timing belt, what kind of car is it?

It's a 2004 Kia Optima.

I'm not really sold on these Kias.

It looks ok. Pretty gutless though. And a pretty loud ride on the highway.

The stock stereo plays at the exact frequency of the highway noise and that has bugged me since my first ride in it. (The lady picked it).

Pure L wrote:It's a 2004 Kia Optima.

The stock stereo plays at the exact frequency of the highway noise and that has bugged me since my first ride in it. (The lady picked it).

I'd save your cash. Kias depreciate in value fairly fast.

You can fix that interference problem fairly easily assuming it only appears on the radio - you can buy products from Radiospares or Tandy which will sort it out (Maybe an RF suppressor?). There are other similar products which can sort it if the problem applies to all sound coming from the stereo. Ijust can't remember what they are just now.

Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 11:36 pm Post subject:

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$250 is not a lot for a timing belt job, especially depending on the car. Do you know what a bitch it is to do a timing belt on a front wheel drive VW golf, etc? It fucking sucks

Yes but they will take the belt off anyway so it should only be the cost of the new belt, not the full flat rate price for the job.

Anyway, it's funny that Kia used an engine with a counterbalance shaft for low booming noise but didn't work on road noise enough.

The bastards just put it all back together (after fixing the main problem, of course) w/out even touching the timing belt. They said we waited too long to get back to them.

I wasn't aware that we had a time limit (within reason, obviously). We called them back within 16 hours of the guy offering the "extra" timing belt job and everything was all back together.

Also, I found out that the timing belt is only under warranty up to 40,000 miles. Not 60,000. And once it goes, one would probably have to buy a new engine.

Needless to say, I'm not very pleased with their customer service.

Thanks for the advice, all. Much appreciated.