Viewing 21 posts - 1 through 21 (of 21 total)
  • Cambelt change, possible to DIY?
  • tedspecial
    Free Member

    Just serviced the car and noticed that the timing belt has never been changed. It’s coming up to 70k so starting to think it should be replaced soon. Thinking of having a go myself. I’m no mechanic by any stretch of the imagination, but I do enjoy servicing and the odd repair as long as the weather’s nice and I don’t have to get under the car (I have to to change the oil, but I still don’t like it 🙂

    Any normal non-mechanic types done this themselves and not destroyed their cars? Been watching a few youtube vids and I reckon as long as I’m methodical with dismantling everything it should be ok. The only thing that worries me is getting the crank pulley bolt out.

    PePPeR
    Full Member

    Which car, which engine?

    Some are harder than others

    PePPeR
    Full Member

    Perfectly simple to do but crankshaft bolts are the hardest to sort, my last change, my 300lt compressor couldn’t undo it, has to drag the whole car down to the farm workshop and use their 3/4″ air line!

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    tedspecial
    Free Member

    It’s a VW Polo, 2000. Single Cam.

    TheBrick
    Free Member

    The problem on modern crs is quite often access. I’ve done quite a few different car / vans and most car have required, jacking up and loosing engine mountings and other bits and bobs.

    Nothing super difficult about changing a timing belt on most cars but you have to be exact and methodical. There are usually pins to lock the engine but I do not rely on these and also mark the positions off on the end of the crank and cam shaft for a extra check..

    PePPeR
    Full Member

    Which engine! Got to give full details

    GolfChick
    Free Member

    where abouts are you based?

    tedspecial
    Free Member

    Engine code you mean? Dunno off hand. It’s a 1.0 petrol if that helps.

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    Usually.

    Im not a car mech but ive done a fair few.

    If you are reasonably competent wih a spanner and methodical then should be no issue

    How ever as stated above access and toolage might be an issue. Im lucky enough to have big windy gun and big volumes of air at home.

    My experiance of pins ( propper pins not something that kinda fits the hole) is that running is generally improved.

    Land rover was 2 teeth out on ip and 1 tooth out on the cam when i got it ran smoky. With real pins in and belt done right it was like a different car.

    My berlingo was done by a garage and they got the ip well off that it ran into limp mode any time it went past 3k revs. Fuel economy was good though. Reset it by pins my self- car doesnt go into limp mode. – how ever ive done em in the past with a sharpie. Its also possible to cut the current belt in half in places in some cases and pull off half before sliding new one on along side it- cut old one totally off and slide new one fully on.

    Always turn back two full revs of the crank by hand and check the tension again. Twist test if it doesnt have a way of tensioning by torque.

    scubashark
    Free Member

    Not a mechanic but used to do most of the spannering on my own cars. Have changed cam belts on Cavaliers, Escorts and such but not on modern cars, what I used to do is split the old cam belt along its length so you can fit the new one with half the old one in place so nothing slips. Hope that helps and good luck

    tedspecial
    Free Member

    That’s a genius idea!

    @GolfChick: Sheffield.

    @trail-rat: Thanks. Wish I had a windy gun. Love working on cars until the inevitable stuck bolt and skinned knuckles. Might be time to buy a compressor.

    TheBrick
    Free Member

    You will need a big one to power a ratchet gun.

    tedspecial
    Free Member

    Just looking At one now. 🙂

    chrisdiesel
    Free Member

    Regard high torque “air guns”
    For home use I’ve got a cheap machine mart electric one £50 ish if I remember correct and never failed to remove even the most seized crank or drive shaft nut.

    garage-dweller
    Full Member

    I used to do a fair bit of home spannering.

    I’ve only ever done one cambelt (brother in law’s 97 Escort).

    Not exceptionally difficult (apart from windy gun absence) but just a sodding horrid faffy job. Not sure I’d be in a rush to do it again unless a real necessity.

    falkirk-mark
    Full Member

    Not a mechanic but used to do most of the spannering on my own cars. Have changed cam belts on Cavaliers, Escorts and such but not on modern cars, what I used to do is split the old cam belt along its length so you can fit the new one with half the old one in place so nothing slips. Hope that helps and good luck

    That would work but I think the tensioner is generally expected to be changed at the same time which makes this impractical

    wysiwyg
    Free Member

    Aren’t pulley bearing failures more common than belts snapping these days?

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    That would work but I think the tensioner is generally expected to be changed at the same time which makes this impractical

    Good luck slipping the belt on without releasing the tension.

    You cut the belt length ways , release the tension slide your belt on and then retension.

    Rockhopper
    Free Member

    Many modern cars don’t have timing marks so you need a DTI to determine TDC and cam locks to set the valves in the right place. The disadvantage of doing it by cutting the old belt is that the you have no way of knowing if the timing was set correctly in the first place plus the belt will have stretched slightly making it even further out. On Alfa TS engines for example you tension the belt by rotating the inlet camshaft pulley on the shaft so you can’t use tipex marks to set it all up.

    bigyinn
    Free Member

    In the last car, Mazda 323 1.8, the tensioner let go. How my other half managed to coax it another 3 miles I’ve no idea, I couldnt even get it to rev on the driveway!
    Luckily it was a non interference engine, so other than the timing being in a different county, no damage was done.
    Was a bit nervous about doing it, took my time over a couple of evenings I replaced the water pump (precaution), tensioner and the belt. Was a bit of a fiddle getting the timing spot on, but a couple of goes and it was done.
    Very nervous when I went to start it, but it went fine.
    If you are going to replace the cam belt and it has a cam belt driven water pump, replace the pump at the same time, they’re only about £25 so its worth doing whilst you’ve got the belt off.

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    if you like the car at all – use a genuine water pump.

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