timing/cam belt

[gary1959]

Hi there , yet another daft question from me. Keep hearing people going on about always get your cambelt checked, always fit a new one after so many miles. Before I make an idiot of myself in front of a mechanic, is cam belt just another name for the timing belt or is it something completely different?

 

[gary1959]

Thanks Graham, thats good news as we just got a new one fitted last month after buying the van.

 

[Deleted member 2636]

Yes a cam belt is the timing belt, older vehicles have a timing chain.
Manufacturers usually recommend that cam belts be changed every 5 years as they can suddenly break and wreck your engine valves and cost a lota

I would suggest that a bit more frequent than 5 years. Every 3 years may be a bit safer. Your Owners Manual should tell you what the service intervals are. Take their recommendation and then knock of a year or 12,000 miles. This will err on the side of safety

 

[Steve&Jo]

We've had a new cam belt today on our motorhome during its 5 year service. We were told that with our particular model (Fiat Ducato) the recommended is every 5 years or 72,000 miles on the clock.

 

[terry1956]

cam belt

Hi all, we our cam belt done the same time as the service, cost £375 all in, Its a Hymer on a fiat ducato base 2.8td. When in france asked the cost for same work, came out at £200. We have been told to change each 4th year, mind you we put 40,000 miles on the clock last year so may redress that to a 2 year thing.
terry

 

[Deleted member 775]

a lot of folks overlook a timing belt .unless you know the belt has been changed, it is a must when you buy a second hand van or car to change the belt.i am lucky as it is only a half hour job on my beddy ,and thats with a cuppa half way thro.

 

[Deleted member 2636]

We've had a new cam belt today on our motorhome during its 5 year service. We were told that with our particular model (Fiat Ducato) the recommended is every 5 years or 72,000 miles on the clock.

Please don't take that recommendation as Gospel. I have seen cambelts that have gone at 6000 miles and that is not unusual. And before you ask, that was on a Fiat.

It's a bit like the nonsense over oil changes. There is talk of 12000 mile and more, intervals between changes. This is all well and good if the type of filtration used is like that on Cat engines but not with the filtration provided on normal petrol engines. The modern synthetics are perfectly capable of acheiving these sort of intervals but I am highly suspicious of 72000 miles for a cambelt change

btw - don't the new Merc Sprinter engines have cam chains and stupid nylon tensioners? The chain stays in one piece but the tensioners collapse causing just as an expensive repair.

 

[Deleted member 775]

the older merc engines had that type of setup, they used to last about 100 k miles then you could hear the timing chain start to get noisy time to change the tensioners or else .