Hi Guys and Gals,

Finally dusted out the wallet and sent the car in for new belts/water pump etc. Changing belts is a very expensive hobby here in Germany. Admittedly, it is running noticably more crisply and smoothly now, but not sure I would be willing to pay over 1000 Pounds just for that

Now, the interesting bit, I have had the car from new. First year mileage: about 10000 miles. The average since: about 2800 miles a year.

This is just the second belt change. First was done at 6 years, second at 14.5 years. Belts seem to be changed the FIAT way (engine out) here. Nobody offers to do it the easy way - typical German, no imagination

Could it be though, that doing it the engine-out way, the belts are not twisted/stressed/damaged/whatever during mounting and last longer, or are original FIAT belts better quality? I appreciate that rubber hardens and goes brittle but surely the design life of such components should be a lot longer than 1-2 years???

The wife's Subaru should also be done and will be booked in soon. Not as frightening as a Coupe though, as it is a non-contact engine. Here the belts are original (13+ years old, also sitting at about 45k miles) and the aux. belts are now showing signs of aging.

I know that these items fail, have seen it reported often enough here, but are they really so weak or does it have more to do with how they are fitted, how the car is driven, mileage, etc?

Anyway, it does feel better that they are new again, but I expect I will not change them again on this car. If I keep it another 6 years, it will be 20, and by then completely worthless.

I wouldnt be too sure.

In the UK, Fiat will tell you they have to take the engine out to change the belts, but they wouldnt really, just do it the same way anybody else would.

Once you have enough space, dropping the engine out is largely pointless as you wont gain anything by it.

Sure its harder with the engine in, but still possible.

Believe me we are right to be paranoid about belts, I've replaced mine 3 times in 80k (5yrs)twice as result of failure. The second failure was after less than 50k.
I guess a n/a would be less stressed so should be better but I wouldn't push it.

You could bring the car over here for a meet, hotel, spending money, petrol, ferry ticket and belt change with one of our specialists for the same sort of money you are paying in Germany.

Doing it in Britain always crosses my mind whenever I think about belts. However, for me, it means an extra holiday which is additionally expensive for the self-employed

To be honest, I have had the car for a very long time, and it has cost me peanuts (except for the initial purchase price). If it now has some major failure, then oh well, time for some research for a new car. The bonnet is rusting from a seam (poor protection and was too late to do anything when finally spotted). Replacing that would cost too much, so I have a car that no longer looks near spotless. Time to accept that the next major move will be a replacement car.

I will keep an eye on the condition of the aux belts as usual, but I don't expect that I will change them before 5-6 years is up again (if I still have the car). If one set can last 8.5 years of my driving style, the next set should be similar if again driven by me???