mechanic advise needed****t25 worn cam shaft

[CovKid]

Get your placard Kev - we'll picket them!

[T25Convert]

You were happy with the van, apart from the duff starter motor. So, get them to stop messing with it, and give it back to you! You can then drive it until it really does need a new engine - plus you can enjoy starting on it without a hammer!

Be wary that in "fixing" the followers they haven't broken anything else.

I would change garages too as this lot appear to be on the expensive side!

cheers,

Alex

[designerjo]

Thanks for all your advice.

Off to the garage this morning to see what they have actually done.

wish me luck!!!!!

[designerjo]

so have been to the garage and they had already started on the replacing hydraulic followers on one side.
They showed the cam followers one that moved and three that were solid.

Tried to show me the cam shaft by looking down the holes that i think the push rods go down?

Couldn't see anything?

asked for everything to be put back and they said that they would do that. Picking up tomorrow to get another opinion .

does anyone know about hydraulic followers are they soposed to go up and down ?

[AdrianC]

These prices my not be entirely accurate but they're out of JK's new catalogue that I just happen to have handy.

new oil filter £9.75
new air filter £ 8.95
new spark plugs £3.50 ea
new auxiliary belt £10 ? (not sure which belt but they're all less than a tenner
top up screen wash £ 0.10
fit new starter motor £ 149.50
new o/s track rod end £13.50
fit new rear brake shoes and kits £24.95 + £12.49
fit new rear wheel cylinders £13.95 ea
top up and bleed hydraulic circuit £5.00 for bottle of fluid?
fit new rear brake drums £41.00 ea
fit new n/s/r/ wheel bearing £21.00 ?
adjust o/s/f wheel bearing ? no parts?

Any chance of an itemised bill for the parts from the garage?

Even doing a quick mental rounded add-up of those JK prices, that's getting towards £400 in bits. And let's face it, bits through a garage will NEVER be as cheap as mail-order specialist parts. Unless they're a specialist in our vans, they bits've probably come from the local factor (<ring, ring> "Yeh, mate, it's me. Can you chuck me an XYZ for VW reg F123BCD onto your van for this afternoon's run? No? Tomorrow? Lovely, ta!" instead of trawling round t'internet and having an elephant lurking in the workshop all week, not to mention their entirely reasonable mark-up)

and 6hrs at 45hr £250 labour.

Add that to it, and that £750 is certainly not extortionate. I don't think £45/hr is at all unreasonable these days, either, although that obviously depends on where in the country. Six hours? Can _easily_ see it taking that long, especially if the rear hub was giving grief.

[T25Convert]

Hi,

Well if its full of oil it shouldn't compress - to compress you'd normally need a vice:



A couple of things here:

1) One lifter may be tired - why replace all eight?

2) If they have been out the engine it is possible to drain them so they go squashy.

3) If you could compress one by hand it wouldn't open the valve (either at all or fully) and you engine would run pretty rough I reckon.

So, if it didn't clatter or run rough before it went in, and all you wanted was a new starter motor I suspect the garage may not be acting in your best interest.

If however you have a drained follower now, then be prepared for it not to work properly once its all back together....

Keep us updated on progress!!

Cheers,

Alex

[jimpainter]

The thing is you could have a knackered lifter.....or it could have drained down, how long have the garage had the van?

[kevtherev]

3) If you could compress one by hand it wouldn't open the valve (either at all or fully) and you engine would run pretty rough I reckon.

The lifters stroke is only 4mm so it would always open the valve. but you are right it would run rough until it pumped up, as the valve timing would be affected.

[kevtherev]

Even doing a quick mental rounded add-up of those JK prices, that's getting towards £400 in bits. And let's face it, bits through a garage will NEVER be as cheap as mail-order specialist parts.

My local mechanic gets all his parts on trade/account prices, JK prices are retail plus VAT
At the reckon up it may be that the parts prices are 20% + cheaper to a trade account holder.
Baxter should give us a better idea.

[designerjo]

[quote="designerjo"]so have been to the garage and they had already started on the replacing hydraulic followers on one side.
They showed the cam followers one that moved and three that were solid.

Tried to show me the cam shaft by looking down the holes that i think the push rods go down?

Couldn't see anything?

asked for everything to be put back and they said that they would do that. Picking up tomorrow to get another opinion .

does anyone know about hydraulic followers are they soposed to go up and down ?[/quote

When i said the cam follower moved all i did was place little finger into the middle of the cam follower and the spring moved alittle bit the other three were solid.
did nt compress totally with my hand. so maybe that one had been trained of oil ????

[kevtherev]

probably was.

[kevtherev]

Get a cuppa and read this.
Tells you all you need to know about lifters

http://www.ratwell.com/technical/HydraulicLifters.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's not rocket science

[123-jn]

After changing a rear nearside wheel bearing, shoes and cylinders and recently changing all the tappetts I really dont think that was a bad price. It took me and hour or just over to do the tappetts, at least 2 hrs to do the rear bearing and brakes both sides. A service is at least 40 mins to do it properly and you still have the track rod and front bearing to investigate. Then there is time to examine parts and clean up backplates etc I'm not known for hanging about and it would have taken me 5 hrs. I just paid citroen 54.00 for 10 minutes work with a computer!!

[kevtherev]

After changing a rear nearside wheel bearing, shoes and cylinders and recently changing all the tappetts I really dont think that was a bad price. It took me and hour or just over to do the tappetts, at least 2 hrs to do the rear bearing and brakes both sides. A service is at least 40 mins to do it properly and you still have the track rod and front bearing to investigate. Then there is time to examine parts and clean up backplates etc I'm not known for hanging about and it would have taken me 5 hrs. I just paid citroen 54.00 for 10 minutes work with a computer!!

Not hanging about sure, but the thing is these people do this as a job not as a hobby.

[CovKid]

In my experience if the garage (no matter how good) is not familiar with these engines, you're into hobby-level expertise and you get charged for them taking twice as long to get their heads around it. In other words you get charged for their inabilities.