timing belt replacement

Usually, replacement intervals are xxx miles, or xxx years, whichever comes first.

I'm willing to bet the xxx years is going to be a good bit less than 12!

If it's an engine where valve/piston contact occurs when the belt fails, you would probably have to write the vehicle off at the age it is.

My advice would be to change it ASAP.

Chris

the guide is that it should be inspected every 20k and replaced if needed. there is no upper limit according to autodata.

I have changed the belts on one of these in a volvo 940, it didn't seem too bad a job, but it was a long slog.

the book says over 5 hours. have a look round for a mobile cambelt man, I would guess they would do the whole job for about 200 - 250

if it is the original belt then don't leave it too long as a breakage means massive damage

Yes..it needs to be done sooner than later because the rubber is=20 already degraded.

--=20 Conor

I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't=20 looking good either. - Scott Adams

Hi- thanks for that

I think the reason it is so expensive is that the engine has to be 'dropped' to gain access?- i'm not sure whether a mobile guy would be set up for that?

I was just looking to buy a bit of time as it also needs a new clutch and brake pads before we head for newquay- which i think altogether came to =A3750- so i'd be lucky if i have enough money left to buy enough diesel to get there!

thanks again for the advice

Mike

Well, if you consider a re-con engine for that van is just over £1500, and if you can't fit it your self it's gonna cost a lot as the bugger has to come out through the passengers door, lots of stuff to take out the way to get it out,

and if you just get the head replaced (as you will need to do as when you take the head off these engines you'll discover cracks along the centre as it's a known weak point due to the length of the head) and a new head is from £500 to £800, depending on how many bits you can salvage from yours when it gets trashed due to a belt breakage.

When i had one of these vans, i changed the timing belt every 3 years without fail, it's not that hard a job really, just a little time consuming as the radiator needs to come out, and the crankshaft pulley is bloody bloody tight, and if it's not put back on done upto the 500+ newton meters of torque, the cam drive pulley will wobble about, and eventually wear the locating peg away.

But to replace the belt, you just need a set of VW locating pins, remove rad and drain cooling system, undoo the crank pulley nut, take alternator drive belt off, lock the injection pump pulley, take injection pump drive pulley off the cam shaft, take rocker cover off, insert the flat bar in the slot in the cam shaft end,

take cam belt cover off.. loosen water pump and rotate to loosen belt, take crank pulley off, pull belt off,

re-fit is a reversal of taking it off, but inspect the locator pin inside the crank belt drive pulley, if it's worn get a new un, about 20 quid from german, sweedish and french, you might want to replace the water pump whilst your in there, again about 20-30 quid,

Make sure you tighten the crank pulley right up, whilst your at it if you have a dial guage with the adaptor, re-set the injection pump timing,

Re-fill with a good quality anti-freeze with corosion inhibitors, i gather you've been doing that every 2-3 years anyway.

Hi- thnx for that- i reckon i need to get it done then! unfortunately I am not mechanically gifted- some days i struggle to get the van door open(lol)- so it will have to be the garage @=A3400- i have checked with them an the price also includes changing the pump belt(whatever that is)- and some guides/rollers- and the guy did seem to know what he was talking about- so maybe its not that bad! regards Mike

Hi- thnx for that- i reckon i need to get it done then! unfortunately I am not mechanically gifted- some days i struggle to get the van door open(lol)- so it will have to be the garage @£400- i have checked with them an the price also includes changing the pump belt(whatever that is)- and some guides/rollers- and the guy did seem to know what he was talking about- so maybe its not that bad!

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I guess with todays labour rates, that's not a bad price, the book does list about 5-6 hours for the job, i forgot on my lt i had removed the engine driven fan and fitted an electric fan, so i didnt have an hours worth of arsing about getting the damn bolts out of the fan ducting and having to remove the viscouse coupeling for the fan etc.

the lt's engine runs the injection pump off the back of the cam, it's a short cam type belt, makes sense to replace it when it's off to lock the cam in place for the timing belt,

Are you down south by any change? cos theres a great bloke in the VW LT Motorhome club who owns a garage in eastbourne, he knows the LT inside out, and is pretty reasonable i've been told, he certianly knows what he's doing when he went on club rallies and had to repair the vans as they broke down :) Dave Wallace is his name, he can be contacted through the LT Motorhome club, but of course if your nowhere near eastbourne then it dunt matter.