300Tdi + timing belt problem

Richard,

Despite this being a definite design fault LR have never accepted reponsibility and no warranty replacement/rectification instruction has ever been sent to dealers. Pretty disgraceful really ... but that's life and LR are no differewnt from other manufacturers in that respect.

If the cam belt modicfication has been done there are two tell-tale signs which should be apparent. Firstly, there should (as you are aware) be a yellow paint mark on the timing houing. Looking from the front of the car, it should be clearly visible somewhere near the air con mounting point and (according to the instructions) is 2cm square(ish). There are no other reasons for a yellow mark in this area.

Secondly, in the same are you should be able to see a green tab sticking up from the gasket. LR only issued green gaskets with the mod kit, according to my information.

If either of those tell-tales are missing I would assume the job has not been done.

There were 2 different modification kits for the 300Tdi engine, and your local dealer will be able to tell you which you need from your chassis number. Not all 300Tdi engines need to be modded - but I haven't seen one a Discovery yet that doesn't :-(

When I had my 300Tdi I looked into this very carefully, speaking to both LR and several local dealers. Once I had decided which kit mine needed I went to the local dealer and was told it was £65 - I haggled him down to £45. You can replace a lot of belts for £65!

Hope this helps :-)

Regards Steve G

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On or around Mon, 01 Sep 2003 08:40:53 GMT, SteveG enlightened us thusly:

useful info... will have to check up on ours. No yellow paint to be seen, but then if the kit was fitted by an independent, it might not have. Will check the gasket thing.

IME, belts themselves are generally about 30 quid +. The big costs are if it breaks...

If you need a kit then:......

300Tdi Mod Kits Def MA939976 to VA101256 STC4095K VA101257 to 129096 STC4096K

Disco MA081991 to TA200000 STC4095K MA500000 to VA542370 STC4095K TA700000 to VA711273 STC4095K

VA542371 to VA558898 STC4096K VA711274 to WA748935 STC4096K

RR MA647645 to MA664120 STC4095K

Richard

Hello Steve,

Yes, this defenitely helps. I immediately went out to look for the two=20 tell-tale signs. I found one. My Disco has no air conditioner, but from=20 your description (and the drawings in the Haynes' manual) I gather the=20 mounting would have been located somewhere near the top (left) of the=20 timing belt cover, in the same area - like you said - as the green tab,=20 which I did find and which would suggest a mod kit being put in. Still=20 can't find a yellow square though. But maybe they ran out of yellow=20 paint, maybe the repair guy forgot where he put the brush, maybe he was=20 appalled by cubism...

I contacted my dealer. He would look into it. I want to ge absolotely=20 sure the green tab comes from a converion kit.

On my quest for the timing belt enigma, I just came across a website -=20 landrover.net//Club/HTML/300TDi_timing_belt.htm (without the double-u's) =

- where the problem is also discussed. According to the author, Land=20 Rover issued a Tech Bulletin 0008, supplementary to Service Action=20 Bulletin A/D482, on "Timing belt failure - misalignment". The text=20 reportedely suggests that repairs cannot be carried out under warranty=20 terms if the vehicle concerned is out of warranty conditions. A=20 disgrace, I agree.

I stille love it though, my Disco, despite water ingress, rattling=20 sunfoors, incurable squeaks form the drivebelt and misalignment myseries.=

Thanks,

Richard

SteveG wrote:

Same here. No yellow squares, but I did find the green tabbed gasket.

For more useful info, visit=20 landrover.net//Club/HTML/300TDi_timing_belt.htm. Martin Holder explains=20 the situation, gives details of the repair procedure and specifies the=20 conderned VIN-numbers and repair kits.

Hope you find a green tab.

Regards,

Richard

snip

SG: When I began looking into this I rang all the garages that were shown in the service history to see if anyone had a record of installing the mod kit. None had, but one sent me a copy of a work sheet showing that the belt had been replaced at 60k miles. Thinking about it again, it might also be the case that the green tab gasket is also supplied with a replacement belt ... the memory isn't what it used to be. What were we talking about?

snip

SG: I'm on my third Discovery and wouldn't drive anything else. I've been pretty lucky up to now (touch wood) and not had any of the more common problems like leaky sunroofs, etc., but I do have one annoying problem right now. The drivers seat has developed a bit of a squeak every time I go around a corner ... most amusing to my passengers ;-)

Regards Steve G

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On or around Mon, 01 Sep 2003 13:43:24 +0200, Richard enlightened us thusly:

doesn't seem so. tried various URLs based on that, no sign of it.

You have me worried now. Mine has the yellow paint on the cover(just a blob not a square),but does not have the green gasket tab. There is lots of yellow paint marks on various components (Air con hose couplings etc), is this the normal indication that work has been carried out on these components?

Dave Prow

etc ought to do it.

I think it was part of the deal to become a franchised dealer - you had to buy 200 gallons of yellow paint :-))

Regards Steve G

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On or around Mon, 01 Sep 2003 19:30:12 +0100, Llandrovers! enlightened us thusly:

not found on this server. which makes a change, I got a LRclubnet error message yesterday.

But did you try:

?Sorry, my fault, I forgot some double-u's and a "club". My printer seems to have a mind of its own when asked to print URL's.This time I copied the address from my browser, so this one should do the job. If not, try googling with "300Tdi timing belt". That's what I did to get there.

HTH.

Richard

Yup, mine's got yellow paint marks all over. Especially on the injection pump(bolts). As far as I'm aware (had a peek into the service history before buying) nothing has ever been done, workshopwise, on this item. So, assuming the first owner was a loyal subject of the Land Rover Empire, the yellow marks must have been there when leaving the assembly line. (BTW, the service history didn't mention any mod kits either)

Still haven't heard from the dealer. When he contacts me, I'll ask him about paintmarkpolicy, green tabbed timing belt cover gaskets and the like. The insights into paintmarkpolicy I get, which will inevitably be insights into DUTCH paintmarkpolicy, I will share with all of you.

Richard

David Prow wrote:

I'm not surprised. The Internet Land Rover Club is not renowned for being the world's best organization (they still owe me an amount of Euros for services provided and as yet unpaid for!). I fear it's yet another example of a good idea gone west because the organisers simply can't cope with the geographical scope of the plot, which is difficult for anyone to handle unless one has the time, resources and personnel to carry out the job.

On or around Tue, 02 Sep 2003 21:24:30 +0100, Austin Shackles enlightened us thusly:

mind, that works, so either it was missing for some reason the other day or I didn't find it.

looks like it's been OCR'd, there are typos in profusion if not. but the message is there...