You won't *need* a new cambelt for the MOT, however, a new cambelt every
now and then is a VERY good idea. If it breaks things get very expensive.

The diesel MOT involves holding the engine on the rev limiter for the smoke
test (www.motuk.co.uk), and if the cambelt is going to break, it may VERY
well pick that time.

While I think there may be a little bit of wrong-end-of-stick-taking, if
you don't know when it was last changed, your mechanic is talking a lot of
sense.

The engine won't need to come out to do it - but £250 sounds too cheap for
that anyway.

A belt's about £20 and the tensioner kit (does the Paxo Diseasel need that
doing? I dunno. Never a bad idea for the little extra money) is £40. If the
water pump's even remotely iffy, it's a very good time to do that too -
another £20 - so that's £60-80 just in bits.

Which is about what the car'll be worth if the belt snaps...

Hi all i am looking for an answer on the above. I recently had an MOT
done on my saxo, and i was told by the mechanic that i would need a new
timing belt, but he would have to charge me £250 as he needed to take
the engine out to change it? I found this hard to believe so all
answers would be apprieciated

Why did he say it needed a cam belt? Fair enough if it's done 70k without a
change (or whatever the relevant mileage is) but without a reason then he
may be trying it on.

I haven't any experience of the Saxo but I guess it would be a similar
engine to the AX or Pug 106 maybe? You can get a cambelt change for those
round here for about £100 to £120. £120 was a main dealer price too, £95
from my local specialist. Even my diesel Xantia with aircon etc was only
£120 from the specialist (£350 from Citroen however).