Timing belt/chain on 03 nissian almera hatch

Jmcc001

my car has just going over 75000 miles and i want to get it done just got a price of 900e .
sounds a bit much . id only value the car at about 1200e
any advice is welcome

lifer_sean

900 euro sounds very high. It's a big enough job, a days work or so, but I'd have expected 400-500.

If the car is otherwise in good order it should be well worth doing. A good clean 03 Almera isn't worth hugh money but it's worth more than 1200 euro.

ianobrien

That car has a chain, supposed to last the life of the engine. If its not giving trouble, leave it well alone.....

mickdw

yes these have a very troublesome chain. If your car is running fine, it suggests either the chain has been replaced along the line somewhere or else that it has been maintained excellently with oil changes on the button and correct oils used etc.
It does not have a recommended change interval and as such if all is well there is no reason to change it.

Leonard Hofstadter

lifer_sean wrote: »

900 euro sounds very high. It's a big enough job, a days work or so, but I'd have expected 400-500.

If the car is otherwise in good order it should be well worth doing. A good clean 03 Almera isn't worth hugh money but it's worth more than 1200 euro.

Wouldn't doing it properly involve doing things like the tensioner and sprockets etc etc? It could add up to €900 pretty quickly then, or so I would have thought.

Those Almeras are well known for the timing chain problem, but it could just as easily be lack of maintenance (the only reason under normal circumstances that a chain should need to be touched is if it hasn't been serviced on time).

Has the car been serviced at the appropriate intervals OP?

lifer_sean

captainspeed wrote: »

Wouldn't doing it properly involve doing things like the tensioner and sprockets etc etc? It could add up to €900 pretty quickly then, or so I would have thought.

Those Almeras are well known for the timing chain problem, but it could just as easily be lack of maintenance (the only reason under normal circumstances that a chain should need to be touched is if it hasn't been serviced on time).

Has the car been serviced at the appropriate intervals OP?

Tensoiners and guides get changed, not the sprockets. Motor factors now doing the chains, but even from main dealer the parts ran to 250-300 maybe, but nowhere near 900 total bill.

+1 on not changing the chain unless there is a problem, and typically caused by poor maintenance. However, many Almeras (and other Nissans) had this problem. Symtoms include engine management light on (showing a camshaft sensor problem, but it's unlikely to be the sensor itself) and errattic idle.

Demmo

mickdw wrote: »

yes these have a very troublesome chain. If your car is running fine, it suggests either the chain has been replaced along the line somewhere or else that it has been maintained excellently with oil changes on the button and correct oils used etc.
It does not have a recommended change interval and as such if all is well there is no reason to change it.

The almera definitely hasn't a troublesome chain. As long as they are serviced correctly they'll go for ever without a problem.
If its rattling or the engine management light is on with a cam position fault its down to poor service history full stop.

mickdw

So there are no issues with the almera chains?
Which Nissan dealer do you work for?

Stretching is very very very common. Sure, a perfectly serviced car might be OK but going by the number of failures, it is an obvious weakness and one which is catching out far too many owners, owners who in one case I've seen have bought used through the nissan dealer with full history and had failure in short time. I believe Nissan might have covered this one though. There is certainly an issue. IMO, the chain design is borderline leaving the chain not fit
for purpose as it doesn't have any tolerance built in for non standard conditions.