replacing timing belt and water pump

Hi all,
My 96 volvo 850 is closed to 90K, and I want to have the timing belt
and water pump replaced.
I have been to two garages to check the price. One garage, which is
specialized working on Volvo cars, give me the price right away, "$750
for the total service". However, when I check the price at the second
garage, the price was just $512. There is more than $200 difference!

However, when I was asking the price at the second garage, the mechanic
was using some kind of software to enter my car's information, then he
gave me that price, which TELLS me that he works for any car's timing
belt, or in other words, he may never work on a Volvo and just presume
the same routing as how he works on other cars.

Since I know nothing about how these are being replaced, I guess my
question is is there any speciality a mechanic needs to know before he
works on a Volvo's replacement.

I want to save some money, but on the other hand, I do not want to
have some side effect after the replacement, such as a mysterious
dashboard light goes on, etc.

Thanks a lot and Happy new Year !


CJI







The second garage , Right now I have two op

Some experienced Volvo mechanics recommend that two bearings be replaced
whenever changing the 850 timing belt. These two bearings are in the timing
belt path. The reasoning behind replacement is that these bearings have
been known to fail/seize around 100,000 miles. The result is a snapped
timing belt, and a ruined engine.

This adds about another $150 - $200, because the bearings are not cheap.


wrote in message

> Hi all,
> My 96 volvo 850 is closed to 90K, and I want to have the timing belt
> and water pump replaced.
> I have been to two garages to check the price. One garage, which is
> specialized working on Volvo cars, give me the price right away, "$750
> for the total service". However, when I check the price at the second
> garage, the price was just $512. There is more than $200 difference!
>
> However, when I was asking the price at the second garage, the mechanic
> was using some kind of software to enter my car's information, then he
> gave me that price, which TELLS me that he works for any car's timing
> belt, or in other words, he may never work on a Volvo and just presume
> the same routing as how he works on other cars.
>
> Since I know nothing about how these are being replaced, I guess my
> question is is there any speciality a mechanic needs to know before he
> works on a Volvo's replacement.
>
> I want to save some money, but on the other hand, I do not want to
> have some side effect after the replacement, such as a mysterious
> dashboard light goes on, etc.
>
> Thanks a lot and Happy new Year !
>
>
> CJI
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> The second garage , Right now I have two op
>