Timing Belt Change - Price Guide/interval Etc

[DLReading]

I have a 2005 C5 2.2 Auto (1st registered 05/2005) which has done 83,700 miles.

 

Should I be changing the timing belt (or whatever the equivalent is called on my car) now or is it too early?

 

What is an average guide price for the job (from an independent garage - not through a dealer) if I included the water pump and an oil and filter change?

 

Thanks for any advice

 

Darren

[paul.h]

The timing belt frequency will be in the maintenance/warranty book which comes with the car. In the one with our 2007 C5, it has 10 years or 160k miles (for Citroen original parts), whichever is first for the 2.0 and 2.2 hdi but I would check your own book since the intervals may vary with model years. As a minimum you need to check the condition of the belt by looking for any oil leaks at that end of the car and if you can by undoing the top cover of the belt - on our previous mark 1 2.2 hdi (136 bhp) the cover could be prised back a bit to have a look.

 

Whether you leave the belt replacement for another year is up to you, but if you are keeping the car for a few years it will need doing at some point.

 

You can get an idea of the costs from the Eurocarpts web site, a belt/pulley is about £80, a water pump about £40, anti freeze probably about £15, an auxiliary belt and a couple of pulleys about £60 (since the belt has to be removed a new one is no more labour to fit). Parts from a Citroen dealer may be more. Labour seems to be about 4½ hours including 1 hour for the water pump/coolant. So probably about £200 for parts and £300 for labour. When I replaced the belt on our 1.4 petrol C3, the parts were about £300 from Citroen and it took me a day to do. The oil/filter change will be on top of this but about 5 litres of the correct oil will be about £40 and a filter about £10.

 

If you do use an independant garage, it is possible they may take longer to do the work and hence have a higher labour cost so I would get a quote also from a dealer. There is also a special procedure to undo the crankshaft pulley (slacken/tighten/slacken or use heating to help) to avoid the retaining bolt breaking.

[DLReading]

Thanks very much, appreciate the reply. An independent garage has quoted £500 inc parts and labour, and a friend of the family (who did another C5 we have in the family) will do it for £375 so I'm going to go ahead with that quote. What you've said ties in with those figures. I'll check with him that he's capable/aware of the crankshaft pulley procedure - it will keep him on his toes! Cheers.