Belt & Accessories?

[ejm3]

So my car is 12 years old now and I haven't yet replaced the belt.
So its at my indie shop and and and he quotes replacing the belt.
So I asked about pulleys, tensioner, etc.
He says the whole kit is like $600 plus an extra hour of labor.
I told him to just do it.
Does that make sense on a 12 year old car with 77k miles on it?
Or should I just have done the belt and saved the money?

[mkeiser]

the work makes sense. the price doesn't.

[NorthernDancer]

Agreed with gent above. Continental used to sell a kit [I have one] which contains all the required parts. I think less than $200. Most often tell your garage "no" when they recommend something until you have a chance [even a hour] to ask advice as you are doing here.

[GoRomeo]

Thats more like dealership price to me. I would expect Indy price to be no more than $400 ? Even with OEM parts.

[ejm3]

He wasn't pushing it, he came in at like $213 parts & labor for the belt.
I asked about all the other goodies and that's when he looked up the kit price.
I just figured if we were doing the belt we probably should do pulleys and tensioner as well.

[Hellshalfacre]

For context and comparison, A genuine BMW belt is 28 bucks. A full continental kit (OE) with belt, tensioner and idler is 95 bucks. The full job takes less than an hour.

[tracer bullet]

Sounds pretty standard actually. There's some book out there with predicted hours in it, and they multiply those hours by their shop rate per hour. Then they buy parts with no cares at all about the price and tack on like 50%. Then they also charge extra for "supplies" and yeah it probably comes to that. It's a reason so many of us DIY things.

My water pump went out in the 135i during the summer. I DIY'd it for something like $500 in parts and a good number of hours under the car but it wasn't terrible. My X3 with the same N55 also had the water pump go out, but in winter when it's frigid here, and I needed the car. So I had a local shop do it for something like $1800. It's just kind of how it goes if you want or need someone else to do the work.

Indy shops around here are barely any cheaper than the dealer, if at all.

[ejm3]

Originally Posted by tracer bullet

My water pump went out in the 135i during the summer. I DIY'd it for something like $500 in parts and a good number of hours under the car but it wasn't terrible. My X3 with the same N55 also had the water pump go out, but in winter when it's frigid here, and I needed the car. So I had a local shop do it for something like $1800. It's just kind of how it goes if you want or need someone else to do the work.

Indy shops around here are barely any cheaper than the dealer, if at all.

Yeah I paid also $1800 for my water pump at the dealer.
Though I ended up getting $1k back as part of the class action lawsuit.

[Fishee]

I just completed the belt pulley and belt replacement DIY.
I picked up the continental kit for $115 from rock auto.
Requires:
- remove the front section of the intake duct
- remove fan
- remove belt and unbolt tensioner, small and large pulley
- reverse everything, replace caps on pulleys.

Took about 45 minutes, and that's with learning curve.

This guy didn't even bother removing the fan...

I'd argue someone should charge you for the kit + whatever markup they want to take, and an hour of labour. No more.

[Almuliman]

Originally Posted by Fishee

I just completed the belt pulley and belt replacement DIY.
I picked up the continental kit for $115 from rock auto.
Requires:
- remove the front section of the intake duct
- remove fan
- remove belt and unbolt tensioner, small and large pulley
- reverse everything, replace caps on pulleys.

Took about 45 minutes, and that's with learning curve.

This guy didn't even bother removing the fan...
[URL removed]

I'd argue someone should charge you for the kit + whatever markup they want to take, and an hour of labour. No more.

Sounds about right from when I did mine a few years ago. I think I took out the fan, though. No big deal and made it much easier to access everything else.

[tracer bullet]

My fan was no fun to take out. I tried with it in place but it was just too crowded for me. Funny we all have the same cars but differing opinions on what approach sounds the least painful!

[Fishee]

Originally Posted by tracer bullet

My fan was no fun to take out. I tried with it in place but it was just too crowded for me. Funny we all have the same cars but differing opinions on what approach sounds the least painful!

Becomes much easier to remove the fan once you've done it once or twice...
For the belt and tensioner job, I highly recommend removing it. Zero clearance, unless you have baby hands.