406oc.co.uk

Hello, new here, great forum with lots of information way over my head, my mechanical knowledge stopped at doing oil changes and part replacements on an '85 Fiesta years ago.

I bought an S-reg 98 406 V6 3.0l Estate in September for £1800 and love the drive, great handling, loads of room only downside is the fuel consumption but ah well.

Anyway it's on 71k miles and I figured it must be ready for a cambelt/water pump/tensioners change.

I got quoted £900 from one well-respected garage, £700 from a local backstreet one, and £1100 from the local main Pug dealers.

WTF?

It seriously made me think about part-exing it in for a Toyota Estima/Previa or Ford Galaxy, someone advise me what makes sense! (I have twins!)

Bloody hell!!!!

I had heard they were difficult to do but thats ridiculous!

I read somewhere else that the cambelt interval is actually about 80k miles - could I wing it for another six months?

Problem is, if it snaps thats it!!

There is another topic on this viewtopic.php?t=2381 and in here it is suggested "as a general rule of thumb 3years and 40k is good for all cars"

I read that, but it would be bonkers to expect to fork out that much every 3 years. I was wondering if any V6 owners had it done cheaper. The drive of my life is nice, but not that bloody nice LOL

I have to agree with you there, don't think many people would do that.

Well I have just had mine changed at 72k miles and apparently it still looked very good.

Mines a 1.8 though.

DH1972 wrote:I got quoted £900 from one well-respected garage, £700 from a local backstreet one, and £1100 from the local main Pug dealers.

Holly sh*t. Looks like im gonner run mine till it snaps.

How much did that cost?

DH1972 wrote:How much did that cost?

Well I got;

1. Full service

2. Replacement of cambelt, guide and tensioner

3. Replacement of water pump and refill of antifreeze

4. Replacement of front brake discs, pads and hoses

5. Replacement of the air con belt

done for £498.

Sorry I am not specific but I got an invoice for parts and labour without any break down.

I had a local mechanic do mine...cost me £205 for the cambelt and alternator belt...that's on a 194bhp v6 not the 210bhp version. Didn't have any of the tensioners done though..

That seems a good price

It is recommended to fit a cambelt 'kit' though

Infact one garage near me fits them as standard, and if a customer insists on not having the 'kit' they get them to sign a document stating that it was their choice not to have it done.

Cant really see the point in not fitting it really, as the reason you change a cambelt is to prevent it causing severe damage, so seems strange not to change the surrounding parts that can lead to the same problem.

Juzza wrote:I had a local mechanic do mine...cost me £205 for the cambelt and alternator belt...that's on a 194bhp v6 not the 210bhp version. Didn't have any of the tensioners done though..

What mileage did you do it at?

My local bod said it had to be Peugeot parts as the kit wouldn't do on a V6. Maybe I should keep phoning around? When I called I asked for cambelt/water pump/tensioners, perhaps I should just ask for the belt change?

I think I had mine done at 78k. It was a bit after I had a service done and the mechanic asked me if I knew if the belt had been done before...which I didn't so we decided to do it anyway.
He said the tensioners seemed fine and didn't need replacing when I had it done..they may have been changed before I had the car (bought it on 68k miles) but as we didn't know we changed it anyway just to be safe...

pretty dam sure I saw an ad for a place called Premier Garages in Gwent who specialised in V6 cambelts, did them for £250!

Rick_J wrote:pretty dam sure I saw an ad for a place called Premier Garages in Gwent who specialised in V6 cambelts, did them for £250!

Including parts though? I've been quoted £200 labour (4.5 hours job) and in excess of £460 for the belts (2), water pump and tensioners (3).