406oc.co.uk

Hello,

Have any of the members here done this job?

Going to buy a kit and do it myself and looking for advice;
- any special tools required?
- can you use bolt(s) and allen keys as makeshift locking pins?
- any 'Todo' guides/videos out there?
- any special advice needed on setting the tension of the new belt
- any tips/tricks of note?


Cheers

Hi mate,

you lock the cam pulley off with 10mm bolt ,
crank, iirc 6mm Drill bit or bolt, lock off point is just underneath the startermotor,
pump is not timed on the hdi iirc

icouid be wrong tho,

tm2204 wrote:Hello,

Have any of the members here done this job?

I have......

Going to buy a kit and do it myself and looking for advice;
- any special tools required?
- can you use bolt(s) and allen keys as makeshift locking pins?
- any 'Todo' guides/videos out there?
- any special advice needed on setting the tension of the new belt
- any tips/tricks of note?

You need an 8mm x about 40 mm screw to lock the camshaft pulley + a similar sized pin for the crank, (it fits thro a hole in the block, immediately above the starter, into a hole in the flywheel). I had a special gubbins for this from a set of locking tools for a DW10, but the biggest allen key that'll fit would probably do....

Accurate postioning is critcal, on my first attempt I settled for having the camshaft locking screw in about one turn and a marginally too small pin in the crank locking hole. It ran OK, but was slightly gutless, so I did it again with greater attention to detail and it's now better than it's ever been.

Read the section in Haynes or similar, it is genuinely useful for once.

Pay particular note to equalising the tension either side of the camshaft pulley, (pulley is attached to hub by 3 bolts which have slotted holes to allow pulley to rotate slightly relative to camshaft).

Remove the ecu from it's cubby hole, take the plastic housing off, but leave the ecu plugged in, just lay it on top of the engine covers.

You'll need to remove the top engine mount, support the sump on a flat piece of wood on top of your jack - the sump's aluminium / complex as it houses the balancer shafts etc. (£££)

I used jasper5's recommendation on setting the tension - tighten it until you can just barely turn the tensioner pulley by hand.

I also changed the aux belt, tensioner & idler to avoid the possibility of an aux belt failure taking out your new cambelt etc.

Thanks guys for that info.

Am I correct in saying that although the car is a DOHC there is only one camshaft pulley and that the 2 camshafts are connected by a chain? Is this chain something that needs servicing and if so what's the interval?

Yes I seen jasper5's recommendation on tensioner hand tension - excellent

And I also plan to change my whole aux belt assembly (belt, tensioner, idler). Had a good look at the crankshaft pulley (it's prone to wear in the 'rubber' centrepiece with disastrous consequences ) and mine is fine. Rock solid.

Dogslife, did you have any access problems getting to the timing belt assembly? Looks fairly tight for space!!

It is a DOHC, there is only one cam pulley & a chain, but to there's no tensioner, so to change it means removing the camshafts. Also, I couldn't find a definitive answer on whether it really needs changing, it's quiet, well lubricated, so I thought I'd let that particular sleeping dog lie......

Didn't change my crank pulley either - I suspect they're made of sterner stuff than DW10's as I've not heard of problems with them, (mine looked fine too).

It's not too bad to get at. My previous car was a Xsara with an HDi 90 engine, (which was awkward due to the pulleys being so close to the inner wing). The 406 has about an extra half inch of space, which makes it easier and avoids constantly lifting the engine up - down - up - down to get at different bits of it. About the worst bit is figuring out how to remove and replace the 3 separate bits of the timing belt cover.

It's one of those jobs that takes most of the day, but only about 3 hours once you've done one before.

Tks for that dogslife.

On a separate note are you running the 180BHP remap defap file doing the rounds on the 406CC forum? Any issues with it? Any worries about the turbo, piping, brakes not being up to all the extra horses?

Have not done this yet but have my hands on the ECU remap file and Galletto is en route so will be joining that particular club soon Finally!!! FAP's & Cerene LOL!!!

tm2204 wrote:On a separate note are you running the 180BHP remap defap file doing the rounds on the 406CC forum?

Hell, yeah!

Any issues with it? Any worries about the turbo, piping, brakes not being up to all the extra horses?

Not really.
I've not experienced the over-boost fault or had any pipe problems - firmly believe these are snags the cars were carrying prior to remapping.
Have heard of two turbo failures, but in both cases the owner had increased the boost further still. Mine's fine, remapped at 137k now on 163k.
I have a driveline vibration only noticeable at max throttle in 4th or 5th between about 1700 & 2200 RPM, (which goes away with the std map). This is not common, mine being the only 2.2 reporting this issue. Latest theory is it's a 'soft' engine mounting bush which compresses till there's no 'give' at max torque. It's not a big problem as it's easy to adapt your driving to avoid it.

Unfortunately, remapping doesn't improve the brakes.

Thanks for that dogslife. I feel confident taking this on TBH, having just one cam pulley to worry about (along with the crank pulley) should make getting the belt on & tensioned easier.

Any info on torque settings for the bolts that go back on? Or is this stuff in the Haines manual?

Don't think there's any that are too critical, but they'll all be in Haynes.

One other suggestion - I borrowed a 2nd long extension, allowing me too use my breaker bar from outside the wheelarch when undoing the crank pulley retaining bolt, got someone to stand on the brakes in 5th to stop the engine turning, went easily like that.