I know this has been covered in the past but wanted to get an up to date opinion on the matter.

My car has a build date of Jan 2008 so could have lower chain or a wet belt. It is now 10 years old, but has only 50,000 miles on it. So.... at 10 years ETIS say it is due an upper cambelt AND lower belt/chain change. My Ford garage says they only supply wet belts and no longer do a chain kit. They want £720 just to do the wet belt and another £400 for the upper belt !!

My lower belt tensioner has a black head, which suggests I have a chain (silver/gold head for belt) ? I have read that, if you remove the tensioner a rounded end is for chain and a flat end is for belt. So my first question is : is it Ok to remove the tensioner to check and then just put it back in ?

I can understand why a 10 year change is required for the upper and lower belts as they can age, but what about the chain, taking into account it has only done 50,000 miles?. I would have thought the chain only degraded/suffered wear through mileage not as a result of age. So should it be Ok for a further 50,000 miles ?

My mileage in the next ten years is going to be, at the very most, 30,000. A local independent garage suggests that, if it is has a lower chain fitted at present, there is no need to replace it, just replace the upper belt. I like this idea and would be interested in the opinions of those more experienced with this engine type.

My thoughts are, given the mileage, if I do have a chain is seems daft to spend money disturbing the factory fitted setup and replacing it with a belt which may give me problems further down the line.

Any thoughts gratefully received,

Cheers

Cloggy

Edited March 8, 20188 yr by cloggy
correction to post

3 hours ago, cloggy said:

 I know this has been covered in the past but wanted to get an up to date opinion on the matter.

My car has a build date of Jan 2008 so could have lower chain or a wet belt. It is now 10 years old, but has only 50,000 miles on it. So.... at 10 years ETIS say it is due an upper cambelt AND lower belt/chain change. My Ford garage says they only supply wet belts and no longer do a chain kit. They want £720 just to do the wet belt and another £400 for the upper belt !!

My lower belt tensioner has a black head, which suggests I have a chain (silver/gold head for belt) ? I have read that, if you remove the tensioner a rounded end is for chain and a flat end is for belt. So my first question is : is it Ok to remove the tensioner to check and then just put it back in ?

I can understand why a 10 year change is required for the upper and lower belts as they can age, but what about the chain, taking into account it has only done 50,000 miles?. I would have thought the chain only degraded/suffered wear through mileage not as a result of age. So should it be Ok for a further 50,000 miles ?

My mileage in the next ten years is going to be, at the very most, 30,000. A local independent garage suggests that, if it is has a lower chain fitted at present, there is no need to replace it, just replace the upper belt. I like this idea and would be interested in the opinions of those more experienced with this engine type.

My thoughts are, given the mileage, if I do have a chain is seems daft to spend money disturbing the factory fitted setup and replacing it with a belt which may give me problems further down the line.

Any thoughts gratefully received,

Cheers

Cloggy

Think of it this way - not changing the chain could save you a few hundred quid, or it could cost you a new engine.  If you can't afford the latter, then pay for the former.  Its that simple 

If it were me I'd stick with the chain. I'm sure you're right that, unlike belts, chains don't deteriorate with age, only with use.