Fuzz cambelt change method.

[billyboy406v6]

Accidently watched a bit of a Car SOS recently, Fuzz did a cambelt change by slicing the old belt down the middle and then squeezed on the new belt etc etc. Has anyone tried/recommend this ?

[lisbon_road]

It might be quick, but it doesn't give you a chance to check the condition of the idlers/water pump/whatever runs on the belt.  In an ideal world especially with a car with unknown history, you'd replace the lot, but at a very minimum, it seems crazy to not at least spin them to see if they are quiet and smooth,

 

I still enjoy the programme regardless of all sorts of issues.

[Dave_Q]

Seen that, was it the Skyline?

 

Did a cringe, mentioned to wife "What about the tensioner?"

 

She was as impressed as ever.

[sierraman]

By the time you've hacked through the belt you would have had the locating tools in and made a crack at taking the tensioner off. In most cases it's not usually the belt that goes, it's the tensioner that seized. To say he purports to be a mechanic it's a bit of a bodge.

[richardmorris]

I suppose it's a dealer job to make money. Do the bare minimum. Fair enough but not what you'd want doing it yourself.

[Bear]

It entirely depends on the car. I wouldn't do that to my 406, but I've done it on a CVH - it's easy enough to verify condition of components and adjust tension and timing.

[lisbon_road]

Yes, also not obvious that he had adjusted it - though when I've seen them needing adjusting a new belt does often fix it.

 

Seems we all agree, not too impressed.

[Bren]

99% of timing belt failures are tensioner related. The belts generally last well.

 

Tensioners and water pump bearings do not.

[Sigmund Fraud]

Sounds like the kind of guy who rebuilds* a gearbox by putting a handful of sawdust in it... I reckon we should invite him on here

[Timewaster]

True.

It was once told to me that cam belts Do Not Break. Something else is always the cause.

[Inspector Morose]

I won't tell you the story about the leyland 680 that he "refreshed" a few years ago. It didn't go too well.

[garbaldy]

I call it the Subaru method and worked when I couldn't get the damn torx bolt out of the tensioner on the pinto, it has since been fitted with a new pulley after I went out and bought a new torx set.

[Asimo]

Try that on an EcoBoost! (cambelt is inside the engine like a chain) Ford say the belt won't wear out because it is lubricated by the engine oil. We shall see

[lisbon_road]

Just to add to that, I'd say cambelts can fail on low milage engines - life of waterpumps and tensioners is more miles related; life of cambelt is more time related.  That's my thought.

[PiperCub]

99% of timing belt failures are tensioner related. The belts generally last well.

 

Tensioners and water pump bearings do not.

 

While what LR says above is true enough, I recall reading an article in a trade mag about belts where a chap from Gates was giving a technical insight into drivebelt technology and manufacture and he stated that belts very seldom break of their own accord (ie: solely due to a failure of the belt itself), there's normally a reason, be it contamination (oil, coolant etc), rough pulleys, seized bearings in w/pump, idler, tensioner and so on.

 

Now you could argue 'Well he would say that' but it does figure and the cut-down-the-middle method is a bit of a bodge IMO for those reasons. I'm sure it's used to cut corners and make money but I'd ever only consider it on a disposable old hack that's already on it's way out anyway.

 

As if to back this up, last year, when I changed the cambelt etc in my MX5 which had done less than 9000 miles in 23 years (with full history but no mention of a cambelt change anywhere), the belt was (looked) perfect, as was the tensioner & w/pump, but the idler sounded just a little bit 'dry' when spun so I reckon in time this would have been the point of failure. (Albeit the 1.6 is non-interference design). 

[colino]

That will be a relic from the Pinto, 20 minute timing belt change days and it is spawned by, surprise, surprise tight customers.

Customer one.  Rare as a rare thing, I don't want you to check everything and reuse what passes your experienced eye, change the lot.

Customer two.  I'm feeling pretty smug, I'm changing a timing belt, but keep it as cheap as possible.

Customer three.  How much?  I think it will be slightly cheaper to replace the belt than fix the engine, but unless you can fix it for £50 I'm off.  (The reason the running engine and Stanley knife bodge was born).

Customer four.  It's got a service item timing belt?

Scratch that, four never becomes a garage customer, they go from one financed car to disaster to next financed car in perpetuity.

[the judge]

Ah it was only a 6 cylinder twin cam/twin turbo engine that had been sat for 9 years.

Nothing could have frozen or seized in that time. Shirley?

 

Showboating methinks,i hope he did it properly afterwards.

[castros_bro]

That's the recommended method for my Morini but it has no tensioner.

[Taff]

his band are shit, too

 

I did meet the other bloke (Tim?) at Belfast airport once when we had both been bennied. Bought him a pint and he bought me one back, nice enough bloke and quite unlike how he comes across on the telly.

[beko1987]

After going to all the effort of stripping it down to get at the cambelt in anything vaguley modern there's no way I would just 'change the belt'. It's the sort of job I'd want to do once, and do it really really well so a bit of cheeky cambelt roulette 50k down the line would be nothing to worry about!

 

The waterpump and tensioner in the meriva were very grindey when I spun them by hand, but sounded fine when fitted to the car. tick, tock, tick, tock etc

[Mr A Lawrence]

Do you mean this guy??

 

[UltraWomble]

Isnt that Max from Max and Paddy?

[billyboy406v6]

No its Paddy from Max and Max ?

[Lacquer Peel]

Is the man off the telly a charlatan?

[Inspector Morose]

No, he ate himself.

[Parky]

Try that on an EcoBoost! (cambelt is inside the engine like a chain) Ford say the belt won't wear out because it is lubricated by the engine oil. We shall see

Should be ok there. Cousin is a development engineer at Dunton and says you have to be a total twat to break the Ecoboost motors.

 

Ford are however working on a larger capacity version complete with "improved" cam drives (I.e cheaper) and at present they aren't quite making it to their first services......

[Pillock]

That's good. I've been eyeing up Ecoboost motors (forward thinking for when they're £800 on Gumtree) because pssshhht noise.

[Joey spud]

These Ecoboosts don't like getting hot and terminally cook themselves very easily.

 

The early ones fitted to the Focus were easily damaged due to the coolant tank return pipe being made from the incorrect type of plastic which becomes very brittle and cracks / snaps after about a year which obviously causes them to quickly overheat as they dump all their coolant.

 

We were told not to try and repair any at the roadside as damage was likely to have already occurred and so any type of temporary repair would give the dealers an excuse not to honour any warranty claims as they could argue that our temp fix and then being driven again had caused the resultant damage.

 

So any overheated ecoboost gets towed straight to the dealer,we dont even try and restart them.

 

P.S Ford have now recalled all the effected vehicles and fitted a modified rubber hose but not after having to replace a lot of dead engines free of charge at a reputed cost of £4000 per vehicle

[lincolndanny]

These Ecoboosts don't like getting hot and terminally cook themselves very easily.

 

The early ones fitted to the Focus were easily damaged due to the coolant tank return pipe being made from the incorrect type of plastic which becomes very brittle and cracks / snaps after about a year which obviously causes them to quickly overheat as they dump all their coolant.

 

We were told not to try and repair any at the roadside as damage was likely to have already occurred and so any type of temporary repair would give the dealers an excuse not to honour any warranty claims as they could argue that our temp fix and then being driven again had caused the resultant damage.

 

So any overheated ecoboost gets towed straight to the dealer,we dont even try and restart them.

 

P.S Ford have now recalled all the effected vehicles and fitted a modified rubber hose but not after having to replace a lot of dead engines free of charge at a reputed cost of £4000 per vehicle

Funny you should say that, I took our Fiesta on a spirited 180 round trip last night to go and collect £25 of Saxo door cards. Pulled up on the drive and switched it off. It made the same noise my old RS Turbos used to make. "GLUG GLUG GLUG.........GLUG GLUG GLUG......GLUG GLUG GLUG"

 

Still, its a Ford and it HAZ TURBO, so will be worth millions in 30 years.