Fiesta help

[iggletiggle]

Afternoon,

have a bit of a dilema..

my better half has a 1998 R Plate 1.25 16v Fiesta which was going in for its cambelt today.

The guy who is doing the work has rung me and said that whoever has attempted to do the belt before has damaged part of the cam shaft which means he would be unable to do the belt safely (without fear of timing going out?)

He has said that it would need a new camshaft as well as the cambelt kit - so would be looking at around £400/500 to do.

Now we cant really afford to do it tbh as are about to complete on a flat and move in so we have all that expense there, but if necessary would have to

Really just asking is it worth just using the car until cambelt fails (who knows when that will happen..?) - car has done just shy of 70k.. is it worth getting a new engine put in (i cant imagine that will be much more than £500-600 ??) if the inevitable happens?

Or is it worth getting the work done (new camshaft etc)


Any advice gratefully received.

Cheers

Mike

[Petrolhead747]

Cant see why you would need a new camshaft? Would have thought a camshaft pulley at worst. Why dont you try a breaker for the parts you need rather than buying new.

[rlgooby]

take it for a second opinion sounds like the mechanic trying to pull a fast one.

[twazzock]

For the price of a 'new' engine you could just buy an identical replacement (edit: car, that is!).

+1 on the second opinion though.

Edited by twazzock on Thursday 29th July 18:49

[speedtwelve]

I thought the cambelt interval on the 1.25 Zetec was 100k miles anyway?

[flattotheboards]

speedtwelve said:

I thought the cambelt interval on the 1.25 Zetec was 100k miles anyway?

I ran mine until just under 106k miles before I got rid of it and I don't think it was changed before I got it.

[Zad]

Sounds suss to me, how on earth would you damage the camshaft? Surely at worst it would need new pulleys. If running on an old belt worries you, look into the price of getting a "short" replacement engine fitted. Is it much cheaper to swap a known good engine as they are cheaper to refurb.

[Mark_S_24]

Perhaps who ever has work on it before has damaged the Camshaft Key (Rough key sp?) Assuming it has one, if that was damaged & the wheel shifted.....

OP, I'd just keep driving with it and chance it, as long as you don't rag the t1ts off it.
Flea bay Item: 200502349416 (£195 for a 2nd hand guarenteed engine)
to give you an idea of cost, then factor in how many hours required to swap it out.

HTH

Mark

[iggletiggle]

cheers guys..

Not sure if the Mech is just being a bit of a dick tbh.. I cant really see how the camshaft / key would have broken and if it did break how its still running ..!

doing some digging i believe Ford quote 100k/10years on cambelt but this was later reduced to 80k..

i'll have a look about ..

Mark - thanks gives me an idea on engine cost

thanks all

[morgrp]

Sounds like bks to me - I bought and fitted a whole replacement engine for a customer's 1.25 about a month ago - paid £150 for a 62k engine and charged £150 to fit it - (that included whacking in some fresh oil and filters (cambelt looked virtually brand new on the new engine too) at the very least you could get a second hand camshaft from a scrappy - Fiestas and their parts are so dirt cheap it isn't worth spending that sort of money on one...

[joewilliams]

Can you get out to the garage and ask to be shown the camshaft?

[rallycross]

The belt will definitely need done before 10 yrs old and they do snap.
Cheapest you'd expect to get the job done would be about £250 on one of them.

I'm not sure its worth spending £500 on an old fiestas.

You'd be better off selling it as it is eg £900 and then go and buy another one thats had a belt changed by its owner.

At the very least get a 2nd opinion from another mechanic.

morgrp said:

Sounds like bks to me - I bought and fitted a whole replacement engine for a customer's 1.25 about a month ago - paid £150 for a 62k engine and charged £150 to fit it - (that included whacking in some fresh oil and filters (cambelt looked virtually brand new on the new engine too) at the very least you could get a second hand camshaft from a scrappy - Fiestas and their parts are so dirt cheap it isn't worth spending that sort of money on one...

can you do work for this price?
next time I have a fiesta or puma with a broken engine is this really how much you will charge? where about are you?

[iggletiggle]

morgrp said:

Sounds like bks to me - I bought and fitted a whole replacement engine for a customer's 1.25 about a month ago - paid £150 for a 62k engine and charged £150 to fit it - (that included whacking in some fresh oil and filters (cambelt looked virtually brand new on the new engine too) at the very least you could get a second hand camshaft from a scrappy - Fiestas and their parts are so dirt cheap it isn't worth spending that sort of money on one...

Can you actually do the work for that price.. ?

As your in Norfolk and im only in Colchester and regularly in Norfolk could be a bloody good option TBH !

£300 to drop a new engine in compared with £200 for cambelt + whatever else im getting raped for sounds good!!

[collateral]

fwiw when the belt came off my 1.7 Puma it looked brand new at just over 50k.

Aux belt was completely shagged though