Timing belt on Fiesta Mk5

the pulley doesn't come off.

if the pump is in the way unbolt it from underneath

one of the first steps if you are changing the belt is to remove the engine mount

Mrcheerful

You'll probably find it vastly easier if you lower the engine slightly by removing the mount and supporting from underneath.

Yes. I need to get a 16mm single hex socket as my bi hex one is rounding off one of the nuts which is stupidly tight. But that's the least of my problems. Removing the power steering pump may be one fence too high. I think I'll put it back together and get a garage to do it. ...or maybe just leave it and hope... it's 40k old but it still looks superficially in good nick.

Steve

Good idea - I'll try that before giving up completely. How low can I lower it without overstraining the other mounts? Ta Steve

But surely the belt on those is good for 100 thousand miles or ten years?

They'll be fine. Just so long as you don't sit the engine at a 45deg angle. You'll be doing it with the shafts in situ no doubt, so the engine won't be able to lower by *that* much.

I noticed in another part of the thread that it's only done 40k? The Zetec engines are good for 100k / 10 years. If you aint gone too far already, I'd stick everything back together again and rest easy.

Oh no, dont tell me that now! Lifes just got so much worse...

It's the Haynes manual which says "Timing belt renewal Zetec-SE engine -

40,000 miles" so I assumed it will have been done at 40k, the cars now done 85k, hence why I was doing it now.

However it's all gone horribly wrong. I gave up and decided to put it back together. But when I came to start it, it turned over, fired incredibly briefly, made a noise (that you may expect to come from a crankshaft flyweel nut coming lose) and it stopped (well it never really started). The crank nut had come lose. I tightened it again and retried starting, but now it just turns over in a whiney non-firing way. What on earth could I have done? I've just read Haynes and theres quite a detailed bit on refitting the crank pulley... might that be the prob? (I didnt at any point go anywhere near the cam sprockets or the crankshaft sprocket.)

Help!

you know i did one last week & for the life of me cant remember but from memory, i know the Renaults use the same idea, but i dont think they have a wood-ruf key to lock the crank sprocket to the crank its soley done by the bolt & a specific torque figure, so if you've started it with no crank pulley on with the bolt not bolting the pulley to the sprocket then the timing could be all to shot & if it is it could be bad news im afraid.

Oh man, I've just read the Haynes manual again:

"Do not turn the crankshaft otherwise it will be more difficult to reset the valve timing, and also with the bolt loose the crankshaft sprocket may not turn with the crankshaft and the pistons may touch the valves"

The bolt *was* loose and the crankshaft *was* turned... and there was a noise that *could* have been pistons touching valves?

I fear the worst...

I don't understand how the crank sprocket may not turn with the crankshaft, but that's what it says... :-(

like i say theres no wood-ruf key the crank bolt holds it all together.

Oh, disaster. How ironic that I waste a whole weekend causing the damage that I was supposed to be avoiding... And how much might this be to fix at a friendly garage?

circa £200-300 but it really depends on what sort of damage you've caused, bent valves ect ect, they could try and re-time it with new belt & see what happens but from past customer experience you'd be very lucky to just get away with a new belt.

The engine is now scrap.

The crank bolt holds it all together, didn't you read all the instructions with the belt kit?

Mrcheerful

there really are some jobs especially on the modern engines that shouldn't be attempted to be *fixed* at home, it might seem dear for the initial job but in the long run it works out hell of a lot cheaper.

It's a Zetec engine. Not the rarest power plant on the planet. Getting another head would be harder than getting the entire engine complete. There is no guarantee that a piston hasn't been struck in such a way to weaken itself, either. Imagine getting the head together and have it spit a piston while using high revs to build up speed onto a motorway? I've seen it happen with a 20SEH lump.

They aren't hard to replace either. I done a 1.4 on a Fiesta Ghia a few months back. Started in the morning and drove it back to the chap that evening.

Yes - I'll second that. May 1.25 Zetc had 71k on it when I got it. I took one look at the timing belt changing instructions and took it to a friendly local garage. There are some things I'll do myself (like hoses, sensors, oil change etc) but knowing one's limitations I think is as important as having any knowledge at all.

Tony

Depends. My mate has just opened up an Audi V6 for that which has:

Gouges in every piston. One piston doesn't come up fully to the top Ally head with chunks out of some of the inlet valve seats. Chunks out of the camshaft lobes. Hammer marks on the lifters where the cam has been smacking into them.

Saying that though, it went at motorway speeds.

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Because there's no woodruff key to lock it all in place.

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