Cam belt life once fitted

[Creepy]

I have recently inherited a Vauxhall Astra 1.6 club 2000 model from my Mother. She purchased the car from new and has only done 7,500 miles. 6,000 of the miles were done in the first 5 years - since then apart from a trip here and there its been garaged semi- heated. As far as I am aware it had 2 services. Whats the score on the cam belt having stood still for the last 18 months ? We have just driven it 100 miles non stop and it, of course feels like a new car but I am concerned about the cam belt ?

[thebhoy]

i think off the top of ma head that vauxhall recommend the belt and tensioner to be changed every 40 thousand miles or 4 years whichever occurs first. pretty easy belt to be fitted so i think it shouldnt be that expensive

[Toureman]

Get it changed now!

$0000 miles or every 4 years is correct.

If it breaks the repair bill could cost up to �1250, more if you went to a vauxhall dealer.

[Toureman]

Should be 40000 miles of coures.

There should be an edit function on here!

[gouldc]

Change it immediately - tensioner kit is approx �80 from somewhere like Vauxspares, and it's the same as main dealer (ex-vauxhall techie here).

If the belt snaps (which they always do cos these engine's are absolute crap), then the head will crack. Vauxhall went through so many of these about two years ago, there was a four-month list for a new head! Don't even think you'll get a tidy one second hand either