BMW Cam Belt?

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- IanDTurner
  
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posted
17 years ago

Fri, May 19, 2006 4:00 PM

I'm a pretty good home mechanic - on my Vauxhalls. A neighbour who has a P reg BMW 318i stopped and asked me if I can change his cam belt for him. he then went on to say, "well I think it's a cam belt, but might be a chain, there seem to be two belts and neither seem to go to the cam area."

OK - I havn't looked under the bonnet yet. What would I expect to see? A cam belt and an accessory drive belt is my guess from his ramblings.

- If so are they an easy DIY job to change - any special tools ( I swear by my camshaft locking tool on ECOTECS )

Oh - and is it a DOHC? Is it an 'interference -( ie valves & pistons meeting ) engine?

Any tips before I decline his request

Ian

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- dscharl
  
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posted
17 years ago

Fri, May 19, 2006 5:43 PM

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- dscharl
  
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posted
17 years ago

Fri, May 19, 2006 5:44 PM

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- dscharl
  
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posted
17 years ago

Fri, May 19, 2006 5:44 PM

it has a chain

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- IanDTurner
  
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posted
17 years ago

Fri, May 19, 2006 5:50 PM

So I think he is asking me to do an accessory belt ( that can't be too hard! )-

BTW - what's the milage interval on the chain?

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- dscharl
  
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posted
17 years ago

Sat, May 20, 2006 10:47 AM

what's the milage interval on the chain?

i dont think there is a milage interval on them

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- Dave Plowman (News)
  
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posted
17 years ago

Sat, May 20, 2006 1:17 PM

All twin cam BMWs are chain drive. They learnt the error of their ways some 15 years ago.

The other belts are likely to be flat 'serpentine' belts that drive the waterpump, steering, alternator and AC. They are very long lived - say

70,000 miles plus.

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- Andrew Morton
  
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posted
17 years ago

Mon, May 22, 2006 9:50 AM

formatting link

First article listed: "BMW Belt Replacement".

Also, look at the condition of the tensioner pulley: it will work with all the plastic disappeared from it (i.e. belt is going around nice shiny metal that doesn't look wrong if you don't know what you should be seeing), but the belt will fall off eventually. Grrrr. But the garage I bought the car from went out of business before their warranty on it ran out; perhaps some sort of justice there

Andrew