“Timing belt” covers three completely different components that fail in three completely different ways. Before we quote anything, we tell you which one your engine actually has.
Not sure which you have?
Send us the registration
We identify belt, chain or wet belt from the engine code
Takes about a minute, and costs nothing
You get the real interval for your engine, not the model
The honest bit
Because they are often not quoting for the same job. A dry cambelt on a small petrol engine and a wet belt on a 1.2 PureTech are both called timing belts, and one costs three times the other.
A dry cambelt sits outside the engine behind a cover. A chain sits inside it, in oil, and is not a scheduled job at all. A wet belt is the awkward one in the middle: a rubber belt, like a cambelt, but running inside the engine submerged in oil.
They fail differently too. A cambelt snaps and bends valves. A chain stretches and rattles. A wet belt does neither — it sheds material into your oil until the pickup strainer blocks and the engine starves.
So the first thing we do is establish which of the three you have. That is a free phone call with your registration, and it decides the interval, the job and the price.
Start here
The same model can have a belt one year and a chain the next, so this comes down to the engine and the build date rather than the badge. Here is what each one is.
A wet belt job that does not include dropping the sump and cleaning the oil pump pickup strainer is not the job. The rubber the old belt has already shed is still in the engine, and it will block the new strainer within a few thousand miles. It is the step cheap quotes leave out, and the reason we price these separately.
Wet belt replacement, from £450The scheduled one
The conventional job: a rubber belt at the front of the engine, replaced on a schedule rather than in response to a symptom. Most manufacturers specify every 60,000–100,000 miles or 4–6 years, whichever comes first — and the years matter as much as the miles, because age degrades rubber whether you drive the car or not.
| Engine | Typical price |
|---|---|
| Small petrol engines | £295–£395 |
| Larger petrol engines | £395–£595 |
| Diesel engines | £450–£750 |
| Water pump fitted at the same time | add £100–£150 |
Indicative ranges for a dry cambelt, including belt, tensioners and labour. Wet belt engines are priced separately and start higher. You get a fixed quote for your car before any work starts.
The unscheduled one
A chain is metal, sits inside the engine, and is designed to last the life of the car. That is why there is no replacement interval and no schedule to fall behind on.
What it does depend on is oil. A chain runs on a film of clean oil at the right level, and on engines that have missed services or run low, chains stretch. A stretched chain rattles — usually worst on a cold start — and left long enough it pulls the valve timing far enough out to affect how the engine runs.
Because it is a symptom-led job rather than a scheduled one, we quote a chain after inspecting it. A rattle from the front of an engine can be a chain, a tensioner, an idler bearing or an ancillary, and those are four different prices.
Get it identified rather than guessing. A diagnostic check starts at £45, and finding out it is a tensioner rather than a chain is the cheapest outcome of the day.
When we do replace a chain, it goes back together with an oil and filter service, because clean oil is the only thing protecting the new one.
What a diagnostic check coversListen for these
A dry cambelt rarely warns you before it goes, which is why it is replaced on time rather than on symptoms. Chains and wet belts do give you notice — if you know what you are listening for.
The classic stretched timing chain. It will not fix itself and it only gets louder — left long enough a stretched chain starts to affect how the engine runs.
On a wet belt engine this is one to take seriously straight away. It can also be a failing tensioner or idler bearing on a conventional cambelt.
On a wet belt engine, stop driving and call us. This is the signature of a blocked oil pickup strainer, and ten minutes more driving is the difference between a belt job and an engine.
Belt material in your oil. There is no filter between a wet belt and your sump, so anything the belt sheds ends up circulating.
A leaking cam or crank seal will contaminate a dry cambelt and shorten its life considerably. Worth doing with the belt while the front of the engine is already apart.
The most common reason people call, and a completely reasonable one. Give us the registration and the mileage and we will tell you where you stand.
Step by step
From the registration and the engine code we establish whether you have a dry cambelt, a chain, or a wet belt. This is a phone call, not a chargeable job, and it decides everything that follows.
Belt, tensioner and idlers as a set, with the water pump priced as a visible separate line so you can see what it adds rather than finding it in a total.
Covers, ancillary belts and whatever else sits in front of the timing case comes off. On some engines that means supporting the engine and removing a mount, which is why a few of these are workshop-only.
Camshafts and crankshaft locked with the correct tools for that engine, then the belt, tensioner and idlers replaced together. Nothing is reused to shave the quote.
Fitted at the same time where it shares the labour, adding roughly £100–£150 now instead of the full strip again later.
Timing checked against the marks, cooling system refilled and bled so there is no trapped air, then a diagnostic scan and a road test before the car goes back.
From the workshop
Real jobs off our ramps, described by the mechanic who did them.
A 2018 Corsa came in with a rattle from the engine. The customer had noticed it and wanted to know what it was before it got any worse, which is exactly the right call.
On diagnosis the timing chain was worn and stretched. Chains do not have a replacement interval the way a belt does, so they tend to get treated as lifetime parts, but they still depend on clean oil at the right level to last. This one had gone without the maintenance it needed for long enough to stretch.
We replaced the chain and it had an oil and filter service at the same time, because fresh oil is the thing that protects the new one.
The rattle has gone and it is back on the road. If you hear a rattle from the front of the engine, get it looked at rather than hoping it settles down. A stretched chain only gets noisier, and left long enough it starts to affect how the engine runs.
This is the job we are trying to talk you out of needing. The cambelt on this Volkswagen CC snapped while the engine was running.
On an interference engine — which most are — that is the end of it. With nothing keeping the camshaft and crankshaft in step, the valves met the pistons. The top end was wrecked.
What should have been a few hundred pounds of scheduled belt change became a full engine rebuild to get the car back on the road. We did the rebuild and it is driving again, but nobody chooses this route on purpose.
If you cannot remember when your cambelt was last changed, that is the sign to get it checked before it decides for you.
Cambelt day for this Evoque: a fresh timing belt and water pump kit on the 2.2-litre diesel, done to schedule rather than in response to a symptom.
The water pump went in at the same time because the belt drives it, which means the labour to reach one is the labour to reach the other. Doing it now costs a little more. Doing it separately in a year costs the whole strip again.
A timing belt rarely gives you a warning before it goes, and when it does go the damage runs into proper money. Replacing it on schedule is how you never find out what your engine does at the roadside.
Common questions
Give us the registration and we will tell you in about a minute. It depends on the exact engine and build date rather than the model, which is why so much of the information online is wrong — the same badge on the same car can have a belt one year and a chain the next. It is a free phone call, not a job.
On most engines, major internal damage. The valves meet the pistons, and you are looking at a rebuild or a replacement engine rather than a repair. That is the whole reason cambelts are replaced to a schedule instead of when they fail.
Not quite, on two counts. Chains stretch with age and poor oil condition, and a stretched chain rattles and eventually affects how the engine runs. And on a lot of newer chain-driven engines the oil pump is still driven by a wet belt — a smaller job than a full timing belt, but still a rubber belt sitting in your oil with a service life.
Wet belt replacement, and which engines have oneWhere the belt drives it, yes, and we will say so. It needs identical labour to reach, so doing it alongside the belt adds roughly £100–£150 now rather than paying for the full strip again if it fails six months later. If yours was recently replaced we will leave it alone.
Three to four hours for most engines. Some need an engine mount removed to get at the belt, which adds time, and we will tell you which yours is when we quote rather than after.
Some straightforward cambelts, yes. Anything needing the engine supported or a mount removed comes to the workshop, and wet belts and chains are workshop jobs without exception — the sump has to come off a wet belt engine, and that is not driveway work.
What we can and cannot do on a drivewayMore often a stretched timing chain, or a tensioner or idler bearing on the way out. It is worth identifying properly rather than guessing, because those are three different jobs at three different prices. A diagnostic check starts at £45.
What a diagnostic check coversBarely. Some engines allow a partial visual inspection, but a dry cambelt fails from the inside and a wet belt is not visible at all without the timing cover off. On a wet belt engine, dropping the sump and looking at the pickup strainer tells us far more than looking at the belt would.
Ask whether the belt has been done and to see the invoice, not the service book stamp. On a wet belt engine the invoice should show the sump came off. If it has not been done and the car is past six years old on a PureTech or eight on an EcoBoost, that is money you will be spending shortly.
Get it checked before you hand the money overWhere we work
Collection and return from all of these, with the work carried out at our Turner Street workshop in Dudley.
We will tell you whether it is a belt, a chain or a wet belt, what the real interval is for that engine, and what it would cost. No charge for the answer.
Every job is carried out by Elliot or Keith - the mechanic who quotes your job is the one who works on your car. No call centres, no subcontractors.
Lead Mechanic & Founder
Founder of Your Local Mechanic. City & Guilds Level 3 qualified with 15+ years experience, specialising in modern diagnostics and hybrid vehicles across the Black Country.
Senior Mechanic & MOT Assessor
Senior mechanic at Your Local Mechanic with 40+ years Vauxhall main dealer experience and a fully qualified MOT assessor, known for honest, careful work across the Black Country.