Engine: 70: Dealership Cambelt Change Prices

Dear all,

I have owned new and newish V70s over the last 7 years but now have a dealer serviced 2002 2.4 T SE (but with 95k on the clock). I am new to this site and have spent more time than I should (whilst at work) reading through many V70 related threads - tremendously reassuring that all of the quirks related to my Volvo ownership have cropped up during exchanges here. My missus has a V40 - I will research that area tomorrow!

Question: Given the huge collective experience out there, should I fork out over £700 for a cam belt replacement (as part of the 96k service) at my local Volvo dealership in the next few weeks(given that the car is obviously out of warranty and on another thread somebody said that the cost of a cam belt is circa £20) or is it a no brainer and just as safe to go elsewhere at a reduced cost?

Why should I use a Volvo dealer (other than service stamp snobbery) ? I would be grateful for your thoughts

[seany]

Personally, with a car of that mileage, I would go to a recommended indy repairer.

http://www.volvoclub.org.uk/garages/garages_county.php

Plenty in Hamps for you to choose

[timh30]

I think Volvo do take the pi** on their servicing costs (parts prices aren't too bad to be honest though). If you are at all handy with some spanners (and confident in your abilities) you can do the cambelt change yourself in less than 1/2 a day. I did this on mine recently, purchased new timing belt, idler pulley, tensioner and aux belt from GSF and apart from the timing belt and aux belt, the other bits were identical make to the originals I took off. Total price for parts was about £96inc, and took about 3 hours to do - didn't even have to take the crank pulley off.

Otherwise a good independent will be about half the volvo price, I was quoted about £270 from an independent - which I thought was pretty reasonable.