Auckland: Need Help with Cambelt Change

[AndyD]

Hey All,

Just got off the phone with a guy who's going to buy my 25ST, which means I have money to finally do the dreaded "D" Service. I'm not keen to tackle things like the cambelt myself, nor do I have the equipment or technical experience to even try it. Is there anyone that has the right equipment and know how that would be able to help me out on this as I don't want to send double the value of parts on labour. Maybe a mini-meet at someone's house? Can't do mine cause I only have a gravel drive :(

Also, I need to replace 2 of my Goodyear Eagle F1's. I don't have the money to fork out for them at $420ea from Beaurepaires. Can anyone suggest where I may find them cheaper, or if I could just get away with some cheap bridgestones for now.

Cheers,

-- Andy

[bradc]

I wouldn't know how to do a cambelt either, but I'd suggest that for all of the parts, Ralliart is a great place to go to, tell them you're in clubvr4 and you'll get a good price. They can also do the cambelt for you, and they will do an excellent job, but they are not cheap. I'm more than keen tom come and watch if someone else puts up their hand and says they know what they are doing :)

For the tyres - I would suggest tyreking in Ellerslie (again telling them that Brad with the VR-4's sent you), or Hyper Tyres in Penrose.

The tyres you have, 205/40/18 is kind of the wrong size anyway. How wide are your wheels and what offset are they? The closest size to stock in 18" is 225/40/18 but your wheels will need to be 7.5" wide for 225 tyres. You might find that asking for 215/40 and 225/40, or heck even 205/45/18 will be much cheaper than 205/40/18

[FNFAST VR4]

I helped Matt 25649 do his (took 3 weekends), and him and I did mine (took one weekend). He fashioned a tool to hold the crack still so you can undo the crank bolt, cos we didn't have a compressor or rattle gun to get it off easily lol. Worked a treat!

From memory that was the hardest part, getting the crank pulley off....

I don't claim to be an expert or anything, but I'd be happy to help if I'm not working when you do it.

[Gly]

to be honest id pay a garage to do it,
worst case something happens you have some come back.

if some one else does it as a favor or you do and your not confident,
something breaks your way worse off then before you started,

the job shouldnt cost anymore than $1200-ish at a good garage,
i had the ST done at eagle automotive here in manukau,
good clean garage with modern tools, job was done when it promised, $800-ish all belts pullys tensioners
a vr4 will be a little more involved but not much


and as for the tyres what size??
i paid 1200-ish for a set of 4 225/40/18s gsd3's
(mag warehouse)

hyper is well priced.

sometimes your better off buying a full set and keeping/sell off the 2 good remainders

[AndyD]

Thanks for pointing out the tyre size error. I do indeed have 225/40R18's... For some reason I keep getting them mixed up. I don't even know if I've ever known a car to have 205's -_-

Will have a look into Ralliart Brad, if not at least to compare prices. I know someone who knows someone who reckons that could get me the bits at trade price + beer or something lol :P

Also, didn't realise Hyper did tyres and again, know someone who knows someone.. so will look into that.

[Subaru ETA]

i agree with gly. i can do the cambelt but it is something that if anything goes wrong i dont want to be paying for it!! not that it would but you know what i mean

[Gly]

**** happens.... (this is why you should get favors or cheap jobs done one something as important as the cambelt)

http://www.mmc.org.nz/forum/viewtopic.php?t=62482



I sold my car and required the cambelt to be done. had a so called friend say he could do it no problem as it was easy. It was $800 to be done at a garage and was going to cost me $200-250 to get it done through him. I paid for the parts and $100 for him to fit.
Thinking this was a great deal and knowing this person had experience in cars but silly me thinking he was quite experienced it was no problem.

Car was dropped off and cambelt done, however a cam pulley was apparently cracked and teeth were missing, he said it was like that when he pulled off the cover. I asked him not knowing anything about that side if it would make the car run differently, he said no. So i said sweet as just put the cambelt on and it will be ok.

Well he couldnt get the car started and asked about the alarm thinking it was that. went over there disabled alarm to cut that out of the picture. Still wouldnt start.

Arranged a tow truck to pick up the car as he couldnt work it out and at that stage i said to him its ok and that i would sort it out.

Get it finally to a proper garage only to find he has bent the valves and is going to cost me 2grand to fix.

Now i cant go through with the sale which means my fiance is out of pocket by a fair bit of money, the person is gutted and i feel very stink about it all cos i know how much they wanted the car.

What would you do in this situation? Would you talk to the 1st person and hopefully come to some arrangement to rectify the wrong doing and payment with the new bill or would you expect to pay the whole amount by yourself?

the person at fault is not taking any responsibility and saying i told him that if something was to go wrong he would not be to blame. why would i say that?

[Ryan]

Need to create an account to view that thread.

[Gly]

well it turns into he said she said my bf said the mechanic says, blah blah court,
blah blah f this f you, wah wah wah. type of thread (now locked)

[Subaru ETA]

thats pretty average putting it back together like that...

[confusis]

http://www.hyper.co.nz/drive/detail.asp?cat=2&id=243&id_name=tyre_id&table=Tyres

279 ea for your tyres, free shipping. I've had really good experience with hyper so far :)