Cam belt tension

[thumper]

I will shortly be changing the cam belt on my 51 reg hdi 90. I have changed cam belts before on the old xud engines but i am told that on the hdi i need a special guage called a "seem guage" to set the tension correctly. Does anyone know if this is true and where i might be able to get one?

[teamster1975]

I'd have a read of Haynes; I've never heard of a "seem gauge"!

[mbell666]

the haynes book says you need one. How true it is i won't comment. I don't think they that expensive to buy.

While your changing the belts, i do all the cam belt tensior, the water pump and consider doing the fan belt tensioner/rollers. A fan belt going can be nasty (trust me, my wallet knew about it!)

[thumper]

s.e.e.m is an acronym for something ,possibly in french, but it checks the tension of the belt by measuring sound waves when the belt is 'twanged'. I have looked all over for one to no avail. As i have been quoted over £600 by the main agent to do the job ,which is nearly half the value of the whole car , I thought I would do it myself. I'm not sure I would sleep easy if I guessed the tension. (Yes i am a worrier.)

[teamster1975]

Little bit of info on this forum

[thumper]

Thanks for that. Would still like to know where to get one of these tools from, so if anyone knows......

[steve_earwig]

Little bit of info on this forum

I'm not sure about the 1/4 of a turn, I came across a forum the other day where a guy said that was way too much and he'd done loads. I just wish I could find it again