147 cambelt service - couple of newby questions

[britten_mark]

Sorry if this is an old chestnut but bear with a relative newcomer.

Car is Sept'03 has just clipped 30k and I intend to replace the cambelt at the 36k service.

Firstly, is this variator thingy a must do with the belt? Mine makes no noise that I can tell but are there any chances of it making it to the next belt change at 72k???

Secondly I do not live near any of the specialists advertising cut price changes so will give it to the only garage I trust. For the bits required there is an Alfa dealer advertising genuine parts on Ebay at allegedly cut-price rates, are these bargains are not?; Variator £74, Cambelt "stretcher" (presumably that means tensioner?) £24, oil filter £3, Selenia 5litres £11, and a cambelt "kit" at £70 (this has the belt an 2 pulleys which do not look like tensioners; idler gears??)

Here is the link for interest:

[url]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dl[/url]

[wombat rick]

britten_mark said:

is this variator thingy a must do with the belt? Mine makes no noise that I can tell but are there any chances of it making it to the next belt change at 72k???

No and no unfortunately. But if from new the car has always had good quality oil which has never been run low or dirty the variator will probably be fine for another 3 years. If it does start to go it doesn't fail immediately, it just gets noisier, especially at start up so there's plenty of time for it to hang on until you can live with it no longer. However if it does need doing, you will in effect have to pay the same labour charge as you have just paid for the cambelt doing so on that basis it might be £74 well spent!

The parts prices look good! On the 2.0 you also should change the balancer shaft belt at the same time.

[mave]

Make sure that your mechanic has access to the right locking tools - the cams lock on teh cam lobes themselves, rather than on a timing mark.