Ford wet belt

[mikewilson]

I'm looking for somewhere in the North East to do the belt on my Mondeo.  I can buy a kit to convert it to chain for about half what it costs for the parts from Ford to just swap the belt, so would be going that way.  Ford will certainly be charging over £1k for the job, so I am looking for someone else.  Do you know of anyone who has experience of this job?  Not really interested in a first-timer...

I already have the engine locking kit and would do it myself but it would have to be out on the drive and my days of crawling under cars in all sorts of weather are completely over.  If I had a hoist, it might be a different matter.

[mikewilson]

Found a place, after mucho, mucho searching.  IH Automotive of Meadowfield, DH7 8HJ.  Seems to be very knowledgeable - they knew exactly what I was talking about, in detail, unlike most of the Ford technicians and workshop managers I have spoken to in the last few months.  That's (part of) the good news.

Bad news.  £1600 plus an oil change.

More good news.  There is a Ford option to replace the belt with a chain for about the same price, which I am taking.  That removes the time limit.

There is another option.  You can get conversion kits from ebay which seem, from the pictures, to have all the parts.  They are about £250 (as opposed to £700 for genuine Ford parts) but are, of course, an unknown quantity.  So you could save yourself about £400 but it would be fitted only for cash and no invoice - i.e no warranty whatsoever.

Seems like a lot of money but it's still doing mid 50s around the houses - closer to 70mpg on a long run.  I would have to spend a lot of money to buy something else that was as good and it certainly would not have the space the Mondeo enjoys.

Booked in for June 17th.  Will report back afterwards.  Knowing my luck, it will go bang on the way there.....

[mikewilson]

Interestingly, when I was looking for someone to look at my DPF on the Galaxy, I mentioned to one of the places that I had found somewhere to do the wet belt.  He told me that a recent Skoda they had in for a crank seal had a wet belt driving the oil pump!  Not to be found in the service schedule.  There are going to be some very unhappy VAG customers over the next decade or so.

Further discussion with the place that is doing mine suggests that the Lynx era engines, if they have been serviced properly, do not shed teeth even when run over the recommended service interval for the belt.  It's the newer ones, with 20k service intervals, that are losing teeth and blocking oil pickups.

[mikewilson]

Just got it back.  The guy who did the work said the belt that came out was "pristine".


Bastard.