have a bit of a dilemma here guys...

just had my 40K mile service costing me £230 and at the end of it i was told i have a small oil leak just behind the cambelt. In order to fix it, the cambelt needs to be taken off.

my car still has 6months Subaru Warranty left and i did the last 10k miles in 6months.

shall i wait for the 50k miles service (includes cambelt change) and get the oil leak sorted then? if so will subaru charge me for the labour of removing the cambelt even if done under warranty?
or
book in for warranty reapair asap and provide them with a cambelt to change at the same time and have the labour done for free cuz they goto take it of and put it on again?

 

Get it done now as chances r the leak will only get worse

 

welcome to the pita job....

what has / is failing is the front crankshaft oil seal,

it can run for years without fully failing, but you run 2 risks...

one is oil contamination of the belt. bad news.

the other is smoke and countless people coming up and telling you your burning oil... well technically you are, but only when the oil that drips down gets blown onto the hot exhaust...

now for the bad news a main dealer will charge about £400 to do the job..

a good independant scoob garage did mine and charged £82

mind you i had had the belt done a year previous for £150

incedentally the seal is about £5


and incase it sounds confusing its a actually a dual seal, its the oilpump seal aswell, as the oilpump sits over the end of the crank so dont be confused when people say oilpump seal there one and the same..


Mart


change your belt before its due just cos they reccomend 50K dont mean must be 50 k 46-8 would have me on the way


Mart

 

labour time for the belt is only about 2hrs plus maybe another 15mins extra to change the seal how do you make that £400 from a dealer?

 

cos they wont reuse the belt.... and they are a main dealer

labour 3 hrs @ £75.00
belt 1 @ £90
seal 1 @ £10

vat @ 17.5%

total 381...


Mart

 

so if i repair the leak under warranty and provide the belt, does that mean the only charge is the belt?

 

nope... oil seal is a perishable item, therefore not warranty....

afaik dealers reccomend replacing this at the cambelt change for that reason....

and if under warranty, i doubt a dealer would be happy fitting an unknown belt..



but hey i,m not often right!!

try it you never know


Mart