Cambelt change cost and frequency

[Rally200]

Hi all,

Just bought a 318i 1999 M40 engine.
Done a bit of research on here which seems to suggest changing the cambelt every 30k miles is a good idea, if that`s the case it looks like i`ll have to get it changed shortly. Bit confused because i`ve also read somewhere that BMW advise they last 50k between changes, what`s everyone`s opinion?

Anyone got a ballpark figure of how much a garage should charge to change the belt?

Cheers people....

[milescook]

Hi and welcome

Bit of guidance here....

http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/inde ... iming_Belt

You could spend hours looking at the wiki it's a mine of info and nuggets.

Where are you based? Plenty of people here that could do it.

[Andyboy]

30'000 is about right. It's worth replacing the rollers as well - they can be bought as a kit with the belt but watch out for post '92 cars (Tourings and Convertibles) as they went to an E36 type main belt pulley that doesn't interchange.

[daimlerman]

Three years or 30k miles,whichever comes first.

Bear in mind that a belt failure will pretty much wreck the cylinder head.

Takes about 3 hours to DiY,parts cost is around the £20/30 mark.

[Rally200]

Cheers people, it`s definitely time to change the belt then.
My local garage just quoted me £200, which seems not too excessive.
Don`t fancy tackling it myself, don`t mind getting the spanners out for the usual maintenance tasks but this is a job i don`t want to make an arse of...

[milescook]

Of course, check when the water pump was changed last. If it's due - someone else can give an official mileage life - then may as well be done at the same time.

[Brianmoooore]

One pump per two cam belts works for me. I suspect most E30s are averaging less than 10k miles per year these days, so the belt change interval has effectively become every three years, and if the mileage is substantially below this figure, the pump change can be extended to every three belts.

[capri_rob]

If we are on a 3 year cycle mine is now overdue - having done about 1500 miles since it was last changed in January 2012