The Con With Cam Belts

Now ladies, this is very technical so if I were you, I’d run off and make a cup of coffee or do your nails.

Guys – what a con. I’ve got an Alfa Romeo Spider (see picture), 1997, only 48,000 miles on the clock and one of the most beautiful cars ever made. Crap to drive on bumpy roads but thankfully, France spends loads more than the UK on their tarmac so it’s not too bad to drive over here. Bought it for about £6k some 7 years ago and apart from two minor faults, one fixed with a hammer, the other with a £15 new part, it’s been flawless. I don’t actually do too many miles, maybe about 3k per year, so now it’s almost fully depreciated and worth about £2k, it’s a real pain to find that it needs a repair which will cost about £800 – 40% of the value of the car and which, as it is inside the engine, may not actually need doing at all but if it suddenly goes – well – crash, bang, wallop – end of Alfa.  

It’s the cam belt. When Alfa started producing the car, they said the cam belt needed changing every 72k miles, which is bad enough, but after numerous failures, they reduced this to 36k miles.

Now just think of this. You’re a rep. You’ve bought yourself a new Spider and do about 25k miles a year running up and down the motorways. After only 18 months, you need to spend £800 on a new bit of rubber…..which might give way at any time. You’re in the lap of the gods. It’s like buying a new telly and being told by the Comet sales guy that you’ll need a new tube in 18 months time! It’s ridiculous. I feel so bad about it I was thinking about getting a petition together but I’m not an activist, so I’ll leave that to someone else, but what a complete rip-off.

If any ladies are still reading this, the cam belt is a rubber belt (on some cars it’s a chain) which makes sure the car’s internals all go round and in and out, at the prescribed timings. If the belt breaks it’s like…..well the nearest comparison is like throwing an aerosol can into a food processor. Initially, there’s some scraping and metallic noises but after a few seconds, there are explosions and the food processor grinds to a very nasty halt. In the case of a car, or more specifically, my Alfa, the valves would slam into the pistons, the pistons would hit the cylinder block and the whole engine would seize up within seconds…..and all this because a piece of rubber, probably not costing more than a few pounds, decided to break. When you think of it, it’s amazing that any piece of rubber lasts more than a week or two in such circumstances.

It’s a real dilemma. As I say, the car’s worth about £2k to anyone else (to me it’s worth more but £2k is all somebody would pay for it) so should I run it and risk it or should I just ‘bite the bullet’, pay my £800 and relax. But relax about what? There’s no guarantee that the new belt will be any better than the old belt. Indeed, the new belt might put a strain on other engine components and the car might grind to a halt within weeks of the ‘repair’.

It’s not just Alfas which have this problem although I think the 36k miles between changes might put the Alfa at the top of the list. Just type ‘cam belts’ into Google and watch the replies stacking up. It’s incredible that with all the high-tech gizmos on a car these days, much of what happens is actually down to a bit of rubber (sorry – that sounds like life itself !!!).

Reluctantly though, methinks I’ll have to get it done cause with my luck, I’ll be bombing down the road one day, the rubber belt will disintegrate and the engine will seize up. Bill = £3k. More than the car is worth. I’ll also have to pay £100 to get towed to the nearest Alfa garage. I’ll have hours of frustration at the side of the road and will have to get a taxi home.

Maybe the £800 is not so bad after all.