Timing belt roulette...

[HH-R]

I've always erred on the side of roulette, not lost yet.

 

Micra was a chain, still in GR9 condition @80k (engine was spot on, shame about the rest of the car)

Punto was too young/low mileage to need doing

Rover 45, I actually got this changed at the right mileage, but no doubt age was past the recommendation.

Rover 75 (KV6), came with no history and was 13 years old. Had 58k on the clock or something. I had it in for an MOT and was chatting to the mechanic and he quoted me £3hundredandsomething after looking up the book time. I didn't know whether to snap his hand off or think it was too good to be true. I said no and sold it instead.

Panda - too young/low mileage.

Metro - think it had been done recently but I didn't really check.

Panda 2 - might have been there on mileage but it's a FIRE, no* worries* if it snaps (unless in the outside lane of motorway/pulling onto NSL road)

[EssDeeWon]

Rover 75 (KV6), came with no history and was 13 years old. Had 58k on the clock or something. I had it in for an MOT and was chatting to the mechanic and he quoted me £3hundredandsomething after looking up the book time. I didn't know whether to snap his hand off or think it was too good to be true. I said no and sold it instead.

 

To me that suggests he has not done a KV6 belt change before...£450 is the cheapest I have ever been quoted but that entails driving half way across the country. Locally all the reputable 'Rover friendly' garages want £500.

[robinmasters]

I did the V70 a couple of months ago, wasn't too bad a job, would have been a piece of piss if it wasn't for the limited access. The gap between the engine and the inner wing is approximately the length of a socket + 1/2". I didn't do it because of OMGINTERNERHORRORSTORIES, the idler was getting progressively noisier.

 

The ZX had just passed 100k, and as far as I know is on the original belt. Recommended service interval: 72k, BoL suggests this is reduced to 48k.

 

I did have a belt go on a Xantia; I followed James Brown's advice, so can't say why it went.

[warren t claim]

I think I'll play safe and buy a V4 Capri with the indestructible fibre timing gears.

[tooSavvy]

Renault CLIO (My SAVVY is 1.2 Clio D4F) say belt 72 Months.

 

Mine was replaced + W/pump in 2009 @ 45K.

 

I'm on 80k+ now.....

 

Do I Feel Lucky... Well... Do I?

 

TS

[PhilA]

Renault CLIO (My SAVVY is 1.2 Clio D4F) say belt 72 Months.

 

Mine was replaced + W/pump in 2009 @ 45K.

 

I'm on 80k+ now.....

 

Do I Feel Lucky... Well... Do I?

 

TS

Number 4 piston by Phil Andrews, on Flickr

[Asimo]

Not the GTA?

[PhilA]

F3R engine, admittedly.. that was 2008. Ignore an interference engine's timing belt at your peril

 

--Phil

[Asimo]

And Relax.........

[Honey Badger]

I'm playing timing belt roulette with the Accord V6 at the moment, interval is 70k or 7 years and I'm at 50k but 8 years since the last change.

 

I've been quoted £450 for the belt which is a lot to spend on a car with a dodgy autobox that could shit its self at any moment, though I have been saying that for the best part of 18 months now.

[D Spares & Tyres]

Are there any mechanics on here who don`t mind doing cambelts? For cash maybe? at a decent rate and within 100 mile drive?

 

I do not trust my spannering skills and I have no patience anyway but I`ve grown oddly attached to my 1997 Scenic diesel family car, it has been all over the county and never broken down once

 

Should of done it ages go but can`t justify garage costs. Be a shame to have it snap though, as I can`t see any other reason the car should break down terminally. My mechanic mate has retired from doing cars and bought a house to do up so no time

 

I could swap for some bodywork as that is more my thing

[bub2006]

Are there any mechanics on here who don`t mind doing cambelts? For cash maybe? at a decent rate and within 100 mile drive?

 

I do not trust my spannering skills and I have no patience anyway but I`ve grown oddly attached to my 1997 Scenic diesel family car, it has been all over the county and never broken down once

 

Should of done it ages go but can`t justify garage costs. Be a shame to have it snap though, as I can`t see any other reason the car should break down terminally. My mechanic mate has retired from doing cars and bought a house to do up so no time

 

I could swap for some bodywork as that is more my thing

Dti 8valver? Our old dci 105 bhp on a 51 plate was a bastard job apparently. Over 7 hours apparently it took to do. We was not paying so didn't care. Good luck in getting it done though. We regret selling ours. Top spec full leather,twin electric roofs,computer,cd changer etc.

[D Spares & Tyres]

No just simple old F8Q. lovely reliable car

 

7 hours

[Bren]

 

Sorted.

[Andrew353w]

Pushrod engines have chains too.

 

 

And some have belts! I couldn't believe the service schedule for my FSO 125p informing me when the timing belt should be changed. Belt??? Yes, the Fiat-derived overhead valve engine had a rubber belt between the crank & the cam shaft! The only good news is that it's not too awkward to do, but I do wonder why it had a belt in the first place, as opposed to a chain. If it was to make the engine quieter its success could best be described as "limited" in this regard...... 

[twosmoke300]

Landrover diesels from the 2.5 turbo onwards were pushrod and belt . 2.5 di tranny too and prob hundreds more

[D Spares & Tyres]

image.jpg

 

Sorted.

That shape Scenic is shit anyway. With a flat battery and an electric handbrake and electric steering lock I couldn`t even winch it on my trailer

 

Original Scenic appears almost indestructible though

[philibusmo]

I have done 2 timing belt changes to my fleet and both were absolute bastards to do.

 

The first was on an Avantime V6 which only just had room to squeeze the tools in place and required most of the components of the engine bay to be removed to change it. It was meant to be an engine out job taking 11 hours according to the Renault book time. I did it with the engine still in place.

 

The second was the Lancia Y10 which had no space what so ever and no readily obvious way of locking any of the pulleys. This caused all sorts of fun and games with the distributor ending up completely out of time and the blasted thing not starting until Sir_Testes pointed out my mistake. This job also forced me to buy an electric impact wrench as the crank pulley but would not come undone in any other way.

 

I greatly disliked changing both, but would tackle doing it again on another car or on the Lancia if its still in my ownership when the next belt change is due.

 

I've never had a belt go twang though, and have had some pretty ropey old heaps with no history and belts of dubious age or original quality.

[Aston Martin]

The 100HP book says 5 years or 75K, owners say 45k. So I got mine done at 6 years and at about 46K.

Being as i'm a moron. It's an interference Fire engine. 

 

 

Panda 1 I think I did it. Did I?   ...I think I did it... If I did it was around 111k. Non-interference so not worried,

[plasticvandan]

did my first belt change on my polo last year (never had a car with a belt before) piece of piss,even more so if you ignore haynes,few bolts to take covers off,slide old belt off,slide new one on,check nothings moved,then start it up.no worse than changing a fan belt

[dave21478]

The farm Renault Mascot tipper lost timing belt roulette a few months ago. Allegedly changed by the previous owner, but with only tippex on the cam cover to "prove" this, so no idea how old it might really be. The belt has definately snapped as an end is still dangling down underneath the engine... I wonder if it was belt failure or something else....the fan belt is gone and the fan blades are all snapped off the hub so I wonder if the fan belt went and the remains got sucked into the timing belt cover? or did the timing belt fail and the end lashing around fecked up the fan belt and fan? Feck knows when I will get round to fixing that.

 

My Mazda pickup (2.5 tdi, same as Ford Ranger) was a pleasure to change. Its slightly odd in that the belt links cam and fuel pump, but there must be either a chain or gears between cam and crank, so even if it had snapped it wouldnt have been terminal. Its right at the front of the engine bay and took me about 12 minutes to swap, and 5 of those minutes were probably spent looking for tools.

 

Someone I know has a Scenic DTi which had the fanbelt go into the timing belt cover and it stopped running. Apparently there is some kind of shear-pin fitted to the cam pulley which snaps before valves get bent....a new one of those and new belts fixed it.

[tooSavvy]

did my first belt change on my polo last year (never had a car with a belt before) piece of piss,even more so if you ignore haynes,few bolts to take covers off,slide old belt off,slide new one on,check nothings moved,then start it up.no worse than changing a fan belt

Clio 1.2 16V in my SAVVY will need the belt doing sooner rather than later. Just read the DonKennedy write up, which is very good.

 

Clio looks like a doddle*   

 

* I'm going to get my MOT man to do it - I just bought the Thermostat cover combo... so he can do that, the water pump, tensioner, and both belts (Alt & PSteering), all new OAT coolant.

 

 

TS

[warren t claim]

Guess which shiter replaced the timing belt on one of his Zetec powered Mondeos and left the cam lock in?

[tooSavvy]

Guess which shiter replaced the timing belt on one of his Zetec powered Mondeos and left the cam lock in?

[facepalm].....Argggghhhhh!....[/facepalm]

 

lol

 

 

TS

[dave21478]

HA! I did that on a 306 turbodizzler.....I came out of that with some bent lock pins and an arsehole twitching like a rabbits nose.

 

The belt jumped a load of teeth, but I let go of the key as soon as it happened so it didnt try to run. Re-timed it and no damage done - MASSIVE RELIEF as I was doing it for a friend.

[twosmoke300]

Ha . I left the massive pump pin in on an Audi tdi , only found out after is put all the front end etc back on . No damage and just a new belt as a precaution .

 

On the ranger I'm afraid that if the belt goes it's still bang time I'm afraid