Forum menu
My Volvo has a non-interference engine so if the belt goes it doesn't cause any damage. Dont know why all cars aren't like that.
Because it's less efficient and not emissions friendly.
is your a SOHC engine BTW newrobdob ? Unusual for any 16V / DOHC engine to be non interferance.
[quote=stu170 ]Our 09 mondeo should have been done at 125k, had it booked in and garage rang to say the cam tensioner bolt was seized and they couldn't/wouldn't get it out, and the half cambelt method wasn't possible. Rang ford dealer who said to not try taking it in to them. So playing the cambelt roulette game at 136k now, with a clutch and fly wheel also on their way out.
Bit of a catch 22 situation.
Which engine? Mine I mention above is a Mondeo, with the 1.8 diesel and currently on 150+k (though as mentioned the cambelt should have had a relatively easy life for the mileage)
It's the 2l diesel ^^^
Coincidentally did the landy belt last week.
£40 of parts and rtv sealant and some curse-based persuasion of the crank bolt and job's a good'.
Arguably the belt that came out was fine, but there's no record of when it went in so prefer to be safe.[img] 
[/img]
I'm pretty sure the VW that the OP has won't be as easy to access! The high labour cost is because it's a pita to see anything other than the camshaft sprocket at the top. Various mirrors and torches and reaching in up to your armpits 👿
Aye the 200tdi was my first timing belt. So easy it's painful eh stoner.
Still doesn't stop me being nervous the first turn of the key after though
Still doesn't stop me being nervous the first turn of the key after though
Thats why you turn it over with a ratchet and the plugs out first, if it doesn't lock up you're golden, unless you've got it one tooth out and it runs like a bag of spanners.
Thats why you turn it over with a ratchet and the plugs out first, if it doesn't lock up you're golden, unless you've got it one tooth out and it runs like a bag of spanners.
8 turns with the breaker bar to distribute the tension evenly round the belt before rechecking the tension and the timing.
Does nothing to relieve my nervousness before turning the key.
I assume that's after you'd cleaned the belt housing out?!?
Most people can't be bothered to put the wading plug in place and usually when the covers come off, the insides looks terrifyingly mucky! (especially if, as frequently is the case, the crank front oil seal has gone.....)
If it was banger I could understand chancing it. A 4yr old transporter though, I'd be getting it done. If I was buying it 2nd hand I'd be curious why it hadn't been done
trailrat - Iveco is 240,000km/150,000 miles or five years. Still pretty impressive though. I've heard of a couple of failures on the cam chain at the back of the engine but thats not even got a service interval on it!
Transit owners be wary, if you bump start your van the cambelt can jump because the tensioner is hydraulic. It hasn't got enough pressure to tension the belt when the engine is not running. The symptoms are an engine thats hard/squeaky to start, its quite common at work on the 2.4l models.
I play cambelt roulette constantly . The last 150,000 miles of driving , over the last 5 years, has all been covered on cambelts that have passed their sell by dates.
Passat #1 covered 80k more
Passat #2 about 50k more
Volvo now on + 25k.
I run bangers into the ground . They generally cost about £1000 to buy and I try not to waste thousands keeping them running.
I am not a revver of engines and will pootle at 1500 rpm when possible. The volvo currently has a stcky tensioner thats causing an aux belt to flutter, and as they run in parralel if the aux belt goes it can take the cambelt with it .
On a car worth well into 4 figures and above its not worth the risk of not getting it done
and no, none of them died from cambelt failure btw
Most of the ones I've had snap have been when dropping off the accelerator like dropping off the go pedal onto the brake and when changing gear, I had two in two months like this, one cam belt had only been changed 5000 miles prior to it snapping, unfortunately it happened on my wife's birthday in the West of France, in August. We didn't get the car back till October! It took 12 of the 16 valves out and 2 diesel injectors.
3000 euro later it was all fixed!
My Volvo has a non-interference engine so if the belt goes it doesn't cause any damage. Dont know why all cars aren't like that.
What Volvo is that? The redblocks like in my old 240 were all non-interference and the belts easy to change. Cue smugly sharing second-hand stories of people changing cambelts in half an hour at the side of the road after they'd snapped with people whose cambelts on interference engines were past their sell by date 😉
Volvo 940 Turbo - reblock engine too, the last year they used them (97).
The volvo currently has a stcky tensioner thats causing an aux belt to flutter, and as they run in parralel if the aux belt goes it can take the cambelt with it .
For the cost of a tensioner that's worth doing. I had an aux belt on a renault that went due to a failed tensioner (about £90 for that one iirc) and did take the main belt with it, which destroyed the top end of the engine (on the outside lane of the M1)