Does anyone know what the "book time" is for a timing belt change on any of the small-mid size VW engines?
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Craig
Depends on what the engine code is - around 2.5 hours is typical for an 8-valve.
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Thanks for that screwloose.
I'll not give up my day job just yet then, took me 5.5 hours and I thought I'd done fairly well but not even ball park close :-)
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Craig
No bonus for you then....
If you had to do another, it would probably take you half the time - the first one of anything is always the slowest.
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Yeah i reckon next time around i wouldn't bother removing half the stuff i did, and even for the mounting bracket i'd have to unbolt it obviously but i'd leave it in that area.
Still wouldn't get near to 2.5 hours though :) heaps of respect for the guys that manage it. I guess some will even beat the book time.
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>>I guess some will even beat the book time.
Depending upon what sort of garage you work in, if you don't beat the book times, your wage packet is rather thin!
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Even for work on warranty (I had a few problems on a Golf and Passat in the past) they can spend little time. They never (initially) fixed the problems but they did when I kept on. Same employee fixed the problems on different cars (seat noise on a Golf and wind noise on a Passat). He has hopefully got promoted!
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>>Even for work on warranty
In my experience, warranty work was always the tightest. The dealership were frightened of the manufacturer, who would audit their warranty claims, and would extract stiff penalties if they found any evidence of the dealer inflating their claims.
At the time, 0.5 hours were allowed to find and fix *any* electrical fault. It's no great surprise that mechanics would just "fit something" and get the car out of the workshop.
When compared with this, it was usually quite easy for paying customers to be asked to apy a more reasonable labour time.
Under these working conditions, the only mechanics who can do a proper job are those who can afford to. i.e., the single ones still living at home with mum & dad!
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I was talking to SWMBO's cousin a few weeks ago who is a BMW dealer tech. Apparently, BMW now won't pay out warranty claims on parts unless the full diagnostic process has been followed and the unique reference number generated by the software at the end of the process is filled out on the paperwork. Even a car coming in with a suspected blown bulb has to be subjected to a full diagnostic session, just in case the fault turns out to be something covered by warranty, and they even track the start and finish times, MOT style, to check the procedure is being followed. Any discrepancies or shortcuts, and the garage doesn't get reimbursed, regardless of whether the car was fixed or not.
He was telling me one of the techs replaced a £1500 module on a 3-series because he knew from experience that it was the cause of a particular fault. It fixed the problem with the car, just as the same replacement had fixed the same fault on hundreds of others they'd done, but BMW wouldn't reimburse the dealer. Written warning for the tech.
Last edited by: DP on Sun 25 Apr 10 at 01:47
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Volkswagen Golf IV - 98 1.6 Book time for Timing belt - Screwloose
