Timing belt - help!

Ian Garrard · Post by **Ian Garrard** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 10:21 am

Hi

Has anyone tackled the job of changing the timing belt? If so, please could I have a few hints and tips. I was going to let the Volvo garage do the job, but they quoted me over Â£400 (which, by strange coincidence, is about the value of the car!) so I am thinking of doing it myself.

I am reasonably competent at maintenance, but the Haynes manual makes this sound a swine of a job, and the access looks pretty limited too. For example, is it really necessary to use a Newton meter to adjust the deflection of the belt to the nearest half a millimetre with a force of 30.0 Newtons applied? Any advice gratefully received.

Ian

Jamo · Post by **Jamo** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 10:24 am

It's a pig of a job mate, and even the most experience of forum members shy away from it.

You could try contacting DBSVolvo on the forum and ask how much he would charge to do it?

chriskay · Post by **chriskay** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 12:24 pm

How much an hour is your Volvo garage charging for God's sake? The official Volvo time allowed is 2 hours & that's for a Turbo, if it makes any difference. The belt itself costs about Â£30

wedge69 · Post by **wedge69** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 12:58 pm

My local garage were going to change it at the 60,000mile service (as you are supposed to), but luckily the previous owner had had it changed earlier.

They quoted me Â£450 for the whole service including changing the belt...

sakis480 · Post by **sakis480** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 1:06 pm

Thats a really hard job to do......It would advisable to go the mechanic and let him do it .....in any other case buy the Haynes book which has the exact procedure step by step...I v done in my car and it took me 8 hours....
0.5 u need to put the car in a platform because you need to have access behind the left wheel as you see the car from the front side(oposite side to the battery)..remove the wheel

1. remove the plastic cover
2. you must deassemble the alternator to free up the belt
3. You must buy new ball bearings of the same size of course (x2)
thats the hard job, to replace the ball bearings because they are hard to remove
4. u must be carefull when placing the new belt, if you have an aircodition you must pay attention to the rounding because this must pass from the airco compresser as well (check how the old one is going around before the removement)
5.From the plastic you will see an arrow which shows the exact position of the cylinder...I know that in the old forum there are many posts in proper english so you can understand what I am talking...You have to place the cylinder to the exact marked place otherwise the idle will be f.....ed...
6.After the replacement of and reset of the ball bearings and the belt you must tention the alternator but not too tight...the belt has to turn something like 180 degrees to its self. if you tight it too much then the boal bearings will come to their end sooner..be reminded that you need good quality products beucause these to changed on a 50.000 km basis.

Good luck........

chris1roll · Post by **chris1roll** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 11:58 am

Â£400??!!
My garage charge Â£180 for the cambelt change AND the service, and that IS with genuine volvo parts.
thats at Â£35 per hour (sticker rate)

wedge69 · Post by **wedge69** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 1:31 pm

And where's this garage.....?

chris1roll · Post by **chris1roll** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 10:26 pm

http://www.formulacars.co.uk
they are now sponsoring my racing (a little), one of the owners used to be a racing driver, hence teh name.
I've said this before but they proved themslves to me when my car "failed" its MOT at a local testers, on about Â£200+ worth of work and i took it down there to have it looked at and it didn't need any of it.
My parents have been going there for about 15 years or so, so i get teh sticker rate although i didn't buy my car from them. still dad spent about 20K with them over the past 18 months, so i think thats reasonable!

dragon · Post by **dragon** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 10:29 pm

I might come down to you for my MOT this year then

MatBat · Post by **MatBat** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 10:29 pm

chris1roll wrote:[url]dad spent about 20K with them over the past 18 months, so i think thats reasonable!

What was he getting done!?

Ian Garrard · Post by **Ian Garrard** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 10:30 pm

Hi again

I went back to the Volvo garage to query the quote, and it seems they had quoted for a full inspection, as well as the cam belt change. They told me they had not seen the car for 40,000 miles (it's true!) and it was standard Volvo practice to check the car over for safety reasons when that sort of mileage had passed.

Well, that was their excuse anyway. It's a bit expensive even so. No doubt I could push them for a quote on just the timing belt, but my initial query on the forum was on doing the job myself. It seems the answer is, let Volvo do it but get a better quote! Has anyone had a go with this job? I'd like to hear any stories!

Cheers!

Ian

chris1roll · Post by **chris1roll** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 10:41 pm

well he bought the 940 about 2 yrs ago(Â£3000), wrote that off.... my mums turbo @Â£1600 then bought the 850 about 18months ago (Â£6000), had to have a new abs control unit@Â£300(!!) ( the warranty company paod for that though) then a new clutch ( he tows a lot) then bought the V70 AWD (2.5 turbo 4x4 beast!) @ about Â£7500 then burnt the angle gear out on it after a fortnight, which the warranty company picked up again

plus all the normal servicing that comes with doing 25000+miles per year, a lot of it with a trailer on the back.

Autobahnstormer · Post by **Autobahnstormer** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 11:07 pm

Jamo wrote:It's a pig of a job mate, and even the most experience of forum members shy away from it.

This job is not impossible, but seems to cause hysteria. Ive done any number of cambelt changes and some of them were real bastards: Lancia Gamma (2 belts), Subaru L-1800 (2 belts), VW Golf GTI 16V and my 480.

Firstly, get a book, and follow it religiously.

Secondly, make sure you get the right belt - I found out that mine was the wrong one before I put it on luckily.

Thirdly, be extremely diligent! The deflection reading is for serious tech-heads. Previous manufactureres have stated that if the belt can be twisted half a turn it's tight enough. A lot of this has to do with experience and "Feel".

Another tip - always remove the sparkplugs, and turn the engine over by hand a number of times, making sure that pistons do not connect with valves - a simple task but one that could save thousands of euros and lots of work.

Compared with rebuilding automatic gearboxes, a cambelt change is a doddle.

Phil

Autobahnstormer · Post by **Autobahnstormer** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 11:08 pm

Jamo wrote:It's a pig of a job mate, and even the most experience of forum members shy away from it.

This job is not impossible, but seems to cause hysteria. Ive done any number of cambelt changes and some of them were real bastards: Lancia Gamma (2 belts), Subaru L-1800 (2 belts), VW Golf GTI 16V and my 480.

Firstly, get a book, and follow it religiously.

Secondly, make sure you get the right belt - I found out that mine was the wrong one before I put it on luckily.

Thirdly, be extremely diligent! The deflection reading is for serious tech-heads. Previous manufactureres have stated that if the belt can be twisted half a turn it's tight enough. A lot of this has to do with experience and "Feel".

Another tip - always remove the sparkplugs, and turn the engine over by hand a number of times, making sure that pistons do not connect with valves - a simple task but one that could save thousands of euros and lots of work.

Compared with rebuilding automatic gearboxes, a cambelt change is a doddle.

Phil

Volvo 480 Club Europe

Timing belt - help!

Timing belt - help!

Cambelt Change

Cambelt Change