Calling petrol heads...

Desert Orchid

Desert Orchid

Senior Jockey
Joined
Aug 2, 2005
Messages
25,350
(There's a clue in the title...)

Morning.

Been told my Mazda 3 needs a new 'wet' timing belt but the local garages don't do them due to potential complications and lack of warranties. Been told a Mazda garage will cost "possibly thousands".

Has anyone experienced this issue and can I ask how it was resolved?

Thanks in advance.












Aa
 
Coming up 14 years old, 70k miles.

Trying to get hold of the brother. He had a Honda CRV which had a problem with the CPU. The local Honda garage said it would cost £5k to investigate and they couldn't guarantee to fix it. He was recommended a place in Paisley who fixed it for something like £300. I'm hoping they might be able to help.
 
Has anyone used the Fix My Car site lately?

I haven't used it for a number of years but am struggling to get through to it. I suspect it might no longer exist.

It used to be good for getting local garages to compete for jobs.
 
I'd never go to a main dealer garage. You are setting yourself up for a ridiculous charge. I took my 20yo Saab convertible to my remaining Saab garage to get its roof fixed. It was £900 for one sensor if I chose secondhand parts or £1500 if I went for new. As my normal garage wouldn't do it, I went for the former only for the roof sensor to die the following year and of course the garage said "well we did give you the option of new!"

I have since found a local independent mechanic who fixed the entire roof (3 sensors) plus passenger window mechanism plus new tyre plus full service for £500. I shall never go back to the other one!
 
Desert Orchid said:
Coming up 14 years old, 70k miles.

Trying to get hold of the brother. He had a Honda CRV which had a problem with the CPU. The local Honda garage said it would cost £5k to investigate and they couldn't guarantee to fix it. He was recommended a place in Paisley who fixed it for something like £300. I'm hoping they might be able to help.
Click to expand...
ok

do not worry about main dealers then

Find a good eastern european mechanic, these guys will solve every issue
 
Update...

(I know AC can't wait.)

I've done some more digging following some feedback on my local FB site and it seems I was misinformed earlier. It is a timing chain rather than a belt on my car but it seems the problem is the tools required to fix it, plus it apparently takes a few hours' labour.
 
Cheers, granger.

I got a call this afternoon from Mazda head office in Edinburgh saying that the timing chain should last the lifetime of the car and does not feature in any service schedule.

A mechanic I spoke to this afternoon is going to do more digging for me to see if he can fix it. He said the chain can stretch if the car does a lot of cold starting which, I'm afraid, the old thing does, since Mrs O only does about 2,500 miles per annum.

Ye canny win...
 
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