ECOTEC CAMBELTS

[mowgli]

Apart from too many novas, I also own a 2.0 Omega 16v. About a month ago, as the mileage reached 70000, the cambelt stripped and totalled the head (which was too badly damaged to be reconditioned) The owners book says the belt should last till 80000 miles. Some time in 2001 GM lowered this to 40000 miles, claiming that this was to standardise their servicing. My car came with a full GM dealer service history, yet it never got a new belt fitted.

If you have one of the ecotec 2.0 16v lumps fitted, I would advise that you get the belt changed, and check the idler pulleys as well.

Has anyone else had this happen??? I would love to know, as I need all the help I can get with trying to get some warranty from Vauxhall Customer Care.

Mowgli...... :( :( :(

[Dicko]

vuaxhall make it very clear in there centres that ALL of these engines need a full belt/pulley replacement every 40k miles and i doubt you would get much off them!

[mowgli]

I think that if a Car manufacturer decides to lower the service mileage of a particular component, and the servicing dealer does not change it, then I have a pretty good case to argue.
The car is ex LEX Leasing, and my contact there assures me that they follow all of Vauxhalls servicing recommendations (Vauxhall have got a bloke sitting in Lex's office full time) and they only use main dealers for the repair/ service work.

By the way, the idlers showed no signs of wear/damage, the belt simply snapped