I would like to get some response as to whether anybody on this site who owns a 156 v6 in particular has ever had their cambelt snap on them..and if so after how many km's?
I realise it's highly unlikely seeing as this would cost a fortune to rebuild, so noone really takes a risk in leaving it too long to get done.. but here's the dilemna I'm facing..
Most places I've searched online, including the majority of peoples opinions on this forum say it's best to do it at ~ 70,000km's or 3+ years, whichever comes first.
BUT.. In my actual owners manual it suggests 120,000 km's....
It doesn't seem like such a hassle in the UK, Australia and alot of other countries, but here in New Zealand I'm getting quotes around NZ$3000-$4000 (full service, including tensioner, water pump, spark plugs etc) due to the limited number of these on the road.
...3-4 times the UK going rate.. Even experienced mechanics who have done thousands of cambelt changes and generally charge low cost won't touch these models.
What makes it worse is that the original owners manual that came with the car is Japanese.
There's a sticker on the engine which reads 42,000 km's but I don't have solid proof that it actually was changed. My current odometer reading is ~108,500 km's. So I'd rather be safe than sorry and get it done asap. I need to get someone who can read/speak Japanese to take a look at these papers I have.. Anyway, apologies for the ramble.. I basically wanted to see what others think about the 70,000km's vs 120,000km's issue..
Any advice/feedback will be much appreciated!
Nicholas.