Phew...lucky

[bangernom1cs]

Hi,

Here's a lesson to be learnt.
Having done all the right things by observing sevice intervals (intensive)
and reading through both the sevice history and all the good advice on this very forum,
I bought a proper 'Gates' Cambelt kit and 'was' going to get it done last week......
However time beat me with the holidays, gardening, recent marriage,pet loss etc, etc.
You know all the excuses. And what follows! Better the belt at the front of the car (and not at the rear in the boot!)

You guessed it , I got the death rattle whilst working on Saturday night and feeling very sorry for myself too
especially having done all 4 link arms, and oil & filters on Thursday like a good boy.

The good news fortunately is that it was 'just' the cambelt roller tensioner beaking up and the teeth slipping on the belt
sprockets but sounded downright awful. I once had this on the old D8 1.9td when a fanbelt went but on the HDi I was worried.
I was saved once again by the Taxi garage who collected the car yesterday (Sunday) at 4 pm and have just
returned it to me now (midday Monday) running well. I Can't thank them enough!

Now according to the PUG main dealer history on the car the belt (were the rollers though ?) was changed 63,00 miles ago but that was 5 years back so I wouldn't always neccessarily believe all that one reads.
According to the lads the weakest point on these engines, timing wise, is the cambelt roller tensioner which gives up the ghost all too frequently. The scary thing is that the offending part gave NO cause for concern or noises or any warning for that matter and that's the worrying factor in all this.
There was a local taxi firm a few years back who were too tight to buy kits and just did the belts only and guess what? Three engine rebuilds later and these were new cars too!
So if you aint sure, save the stress and get it done.

Off to do a 72hr shift now to make up my money lol!

Tony

[Welly]

'Phew' indeed

I had the supplying dealer change my belt but I was never really sure it was done to include the tensioners or not but to be fair it all comes as a 'kit' now so you'd be daft not to fit all the stuff whilst you were down there.

[jasper5]

Make sure that if the book says 5 years or 72,000 miles, that you change the cambelt kit at 5 years, no matter if the mileage is less than 72,000 or the recommended mileage.It is important.

The plastic rollers go hard and brittle over time and can suddenly fall apart due to fatigue and heat.

Always change the belt as a kit.