belt replacement quote, about right?

[deafasapost]

hi all []

had a price today for the water pump and belts to be done, which was £807 all in.

how does this price sound? good? expensive?
feedback greatfully recieved []

Al.

 

[DavidL]

As long as that includes a full service then that's not too bad.
You could use Hartech as a guide
http://www.hartech.org/docs/Prices_Jan_2007.pdf

They areb't far from you are they?

 

[deafasapost]

hi David,
no, thats the cam and balance belts and water pump, inc vat/labour.

just had the service done at my local.

edited to add, hartech is a bit away from me, but not massively so.

 

[edh]

Sounds expensive - unless water pump prices have rocketed again...

 

[deafasapost]

i thought it might be a bit ott.

i'll wait and see and get some more in before i make the decision on who to use.

 

[Lizard]

v expensive, good indy quote for my 8v was under half that.

 

[Suffolk944]

+1 here for the "sounds pricey to me" school of thought. As others have said a good indy will do that for comfortably less....

 

[dannyp]

Yeh I agree with the above, had a quote about half that recently, although I found the paperwork meaning it wasn't needed. That was with a local non-Porsche garage mind you - on an 8V

 

[DavidL]

I'd expect to pay around 200+VAT for the belts. WP themselves are around the 300 mark plus up to an hours extra labour to fit that once the belts are off.
So 200+300+50 +VAT
around the 650 mark?

 

[deafasapost]

was quoted 7 hours labour at £350 + vat.
the rest is parts, so i think the parts prices they're charging are on the dear side, or is the time taken (not the actual per hour rate) too long?

 

[Suffolk944]

Of course they could be covering themselves in case they struggle to get the water pump off ?

Alternatively have they quoted for the chains as well seeing your car has one them there new fangled 16V engines ?

 

[Outrun944]

Ouch, that is expensive.

My garage did both the belts for me at £200 but reduced the semi-full service to £100 .... []

Water pumps the actual part should be just over £200 (http://www.porscheshop.co.uk/acatalog/porsche_944_water_cooling.html#a1_2162)
I can't imagine it's too much of a faff for an experienced mechanic to do ... maybe a couple of hours tops??

I reckon a good bargain price would be £500/550 ... that's what my garage would charge, elsewhere more likely going up to £650. I personally wouldn't go over £700.
Sounds like they're unsure how difficult a job it will be, perhaps haven't done many 944s.

 

[wardtimothy]

I just got quoted £550 for both belts, tensioners, water pump and crankshaft oil seal, oil filter, oil change and antifreeze.

I though this was steep, thats why a chap I know who owns his own garage is now going to be doing it at mates rate.

 

[Lizard]

Scrub my bit above, had no idea water pump was such daft money, I thought pump would be golf prices at 30 quid err no its not, without the pump non porker specialist quoted me 350+ the vat or 350 for cash, pump even from euro is 250 area!

http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/c/Porsche_944_2.5_1987/p/Car-Parts/Cooling-and-Heating/Cooling/Water-Pumps-and-Gaskets

 

[blease]

I think you need to check how many hours labour they are quoting you for. My Indy quoted me 6 hours @£35 per hour. Local garage @£40 per hour managed the job in the same time. As you know, for my belts, idlers, chains, tensioner slippers plus sundry other items, I spent just over £700. So, adding your water pump in, that sounds about right to me.
To be honest, I would expect if your garage rates are similar you aren't going to get it much cheaper because parts prices are pretty much of a muchness. However, do check with multiple suppliers, including OPC.

 

[Fat Albert]

I had mine done at TWG in Peterborough in June and cost me around £600, but that included changing the cam cover gasket as well

 

[robsangster]

Im surprised to see water pump prices still quoted at £300 on here. Laso pump direct from Germany £175 six months ago.... and the euro is a tad better now.... so you might manage £150ish maybe. INA rollers/tensioners - all 5 (as you will get from OPC but in a porsche box instead of a green INA one), cam, balance, PAS and Alt belt (all Dayco) & cam chain (16V car) all GS&F - £200. Cam bolt - OPC £0.90 and top slipper £7.00, we removed and inspected tensioner body also so replace the crush washers on refitting (it was in great shape still, including bottom slipper) £1.00. Then its just labour. Admittedly the pump took about an hour..... However it was the first change at 90,000 miles. If you're unaware of the German suppliers yet - get on board! Plenty of people happy to sell you EXACTLY the same Laso pump for in excess of £100+ in the good old UK.

 

[wolfie308]

I'm rather envious of owners who have competent people they trust who only charge £35-40/hour. My Indy's rate is £57.50 + VAT and their website price for just cam and balance belts is £516.40.

My total bill for all belts inc alternator and PAS, all tensioners and rollers, cam chain, both slippers, cam gasket and oil and filter change + MOT came to.......... £1133 - not including water pump(which was done at previous belt change 26k miles ago)

 

[deafasapost]

cheers for the replies guys. []
the price quoted was not from my local (going down the rec'd route for now for the belts etc) and was quoted by Andrew Kirk Engineering. i'm still getting quotes in, so we'll see how they compare.

we've just sold our house, and the new buyers want to be in in 2 weeks, so thats taking president at the mo. its all a major rush and very stressfull, more so that we havnt had our offer(s) accepted (yet) on the house we want,[&:] so, we're putting the stuff in storage for now and moving in with the in-laws, on the upside, they are lovely people and its not too far away from work.

 

[zcacogp]

As said, you need a quote which breaks down the costs of parts and labour.

Does that include the rollers? What about the cam chain?

I paid £200 for the belts and rollers from Promax, and the pump was another £260 ish. That's pushing towards £500 just for parts.

I'd not expect an experienced technician to be spending more than 4 hours on the whole job. Maybe 5 with the water pump as well.

On that basis, that quote is on the high side but not stupidly so.


Oli.