how much and where to go?

[Adam-D]

to get cambelt and cam chain replaced?

i ideally want the water pump thermostat etc changing aswell
as a just in case thing

rough price? im pretty good with mechanics but ive always stayed away from messing with 16v engines

[tobz.]

I had to have the camchain and tensioner replaced on my last 16v. The garage said that it made sense to replace the tappets while the engine was in bits anyway as it had over 100k on it. The cambelt was also done at the same time. The bill was a wallet worrying ?589, there were a couple of other small items on there such as replace leaky hose mount etc but I would say ?500 of it was the chain, belt tappets etc. The tappets were ?128 so you could save that by not doing them but it does make sense to do them while it's all apart anyway.

As for where to have it done, it depends where you are based, I used a vw specialist called cowley road garage in cambridge.

[Adam-D]

so ?500 inc labour

wonder how much just the parts would cost? mine has done over 100k i think so it needs doing really

[VeeDubGTI16v]

cost me ?25 for cambelt, ?35 for tensioner, ?15 for chain, ?13 for rocker cover gasket and ?3 and ?7 for the inlet manifold gaskets, all from vag. cant find my tappets reciept but if i remember right they were ?6 each from euro car parts and ?17 each from vw and i did all the work myself

[Adam-D]

so just under ?200 alltogether

next question

how hard, i can do 8v engines and a little scared of 16v
is it easy to time it up?
and set the correct tension
does the chain have a tensioner?

[tinman]

ECP may be cheap but i'd spend the extra buy the engine components from VAG, especially tappets.

[VeeDubGTI16v]

i since found out that apparently mk3 tappets fit and are half the weight of mk2 ones

[Helios_Blue_Valver]

16v is just as easy as 8v for the belt in all honesty. the chain can be a bit fiddly but still doable all the same. I think i would just do it myself and pocket the labor charge.