Firstly about an hour after it went in they called me to say the (in their words) aux belt was split and urgently needed replacing. They described this as the belt on the front of the engine that powers the power steering, AC and alternator. They said this is a front off job and would cost about £400. One of the aux rads is also leaking which I know about and if they were going to do it they might as well replace those too. They described the belt as being really bad, but when I got the car home and several times since I have checked what is the only belt I can see on the front of the engine and it looks OK, it looks quite worn but there are no signs of splits of frays (the car has done 50,000 miles). Are there more belts on the front of the engine or could this belt they are talking about be somewhere else? I more than happy to do the work if it needs doing but I don’t want to be taken for a ride. They also told me there is a clutch on the alternator (?!) which they might as well do while the bumper is off and this is another £80 as these are prone to failure.
In addition to this it has a slight knock intermittently under acceleration or breaking, it will just knock once per acceleration or brake and not every time. They told be that 2 bushes are split and that the front O/S driveshaft is on the way out, this shaft without the labour cost in the region of £350, again does this all sound right?
I know a reasonable bit about cars and just feel like they are trying to take me for a ride, obviously if there is an issue I want to get it fixed but I’m just a bit sceptical.
Might call MRC to see if they wouldn’t mind taking a look as they aren’t too far from me.
Thanks in advance.
