300Tdi Cambelt

60,000 is the usually quoted figure - but unless you know when it was last changed doing it now is probably a Good Thing.

The price doesn't sound unreasonable.

Richard

I took the sellers word that it had been done, all was OK till it went bang at 140Kmls, my local LR agent quoted 72000 mls. It cost me over £700 and that was less than I imagined!!!

Get It Done.

Peter.

Got two quotes from indipendants a year ago. £196 and £195 that was close enough for me. LR wanted £450 !!

Make sure they have done them before and know the correct torque setting for the cam cover as this can diostort and wear the belt prematurely. Interval is 72 k but I change mine at 50k to be safe.

TIMING COVER Sorry

I had mine done at the local Land Ranger about two months back and that was £215 in total.

it is not a job that takes that long because the 300tdi doesnt need the water pump to be removed as with other landies .

if youre belt doesnt wear then you can go up to 40,000 miles between changes but in reality id not let it go for much over 20,000 miles judging by my own experience of timing belt wear rates in my 300tdi .

the inherent problem with 300tdis is that the timing belt itself walks forward off the injector pump gear if the pump gear isnt aligned properly and no amount of lipped crank and idler pulleys will stop this from happening . in fact its only the timing cover that keeps the belt on the gear in a lot of cases .

whatever you do , make sure you do have the belt changed as soon as possible .

the updates landrover advised belt tension is 9ft/lbs and thats what i set mine to .

i have changed my belt at 12,000 mile intervals , ie once per year ,after all it takes me only a few hours to do a belt change , what cost of a timing belt at 20 odd quid compared to an engine blown and in pieces .

I paid a bit less three years ago, so price doesn't sound unreasonable.

Pieter

On or around Fri, 18 Nov 2005 13:57:42 +0000 (UTC), beamendsltd enlightened us thusly:

The book says 72000, or 36000 for "arduous conditions". But I'd not run a

300 TDI as long as 72000 without checking it, knowing the belt problems that can occur.

48000 seems a good compromise, to me.

is there an easy way of checking the condition of the cam belt via an inspection hole or something?

On or around Sun, 20 Nov 2005 17:33:29 -0000, "Paul" enlightened us thusly:

not reliably. You can try poking around in the drain hole at the bottom of the belt casing, presence of ground-up rubber stuff there being a Bad Sign (tm).

but mostly you have to get it apart.

what mileage has it done (since new or since last known belt-change)?

it had the belt done at 69169 the mileage now is 87520, so it should be good for 30k. would be handy to check all is well but if it means major dismantling then I thing I'll leave it.

My local LR dealers said to look up through the drain hole and check whether the flanged pulley had been fitted. That would require eyes on stalks like a snail, which I have no doubt their engineers have.

However, here's an opportunity for some enterprising guy. How about an endoscope for hire? New, industrial endoscopes seem to be around £1,000 but I found this on Ebay:

Too late for me as my 300Tdi was one of the listed chassis numbers needing the conversion kit. But when it was dismantled, we found it already had one and everything was in perfect order. I could have bought the endoscope for the money!

Derry

Derry