Broken Timeing belt on the C8 HDI

[Stekelly]

Well the issues with the C8 took a bad turn today. The sister in law rang to say the car cut out and wont start. Went to have a look and a mechanic friend of their late fathers had got there too. He took off the timeing belt cover and sure enough, the belt was broken.

He got it back to his place and its in a queue now. She was going fairly slow past a school at the time and pull straight in so hopefully damage is on the lesser side of catastrophic. She did try turn it over a few times though.

Kiking myself I never took the cover off and had a look over the last couple of months, kept meaning too. The (-expletive removed-) we bought it off had it stickered up from a garage to say it had been done last October ish. Clearly hadnt.

[spider]

If you have some kind of reciept or something saying it was done it might be cause to look into it further. I did not do the one on my (non PSA) car as although I'd planned it I had a receipt for a new one from a reputable garage.

I guess a cheap horrible belt could of been fitted back then or over tensioned but I'd of expected some whining if it was really that overtightly tensioned. Does seem unlikely it has broken so soon as I cannot see 96K or so in a year somehow.

Regarding the problem in hand, hopefully it will just be a set of rockers. HDi's don't usually do the "cam-o-three" trick which can be quite upsetting and expensive so with a bit of luck this won't of happened.

Hoping that in this case its just the rockers which should not be too expensive to put right. Not sure if this applies to the 16v or 2.2 lumps though.

[Stekelly]

It's the 2.0 in it. Car only has 76k on it and its done about 3k since it was bought in the first week of January if that.

I must check the service history and receipts to see if theres one in there for it or if its just the sticker on the slam panel and his (lieing) word. Car is in Ireland and was bought in Doncaster which makes showing up at his door a problem too. I wouldnt normally have a problem doing it.

[citroenxm]

steve

as its the 8v hdi your in very good LUCK

the 8v survive belt breakages well.. you will only need a set of rocker fingers!!! deneatly at that crawling speed... a customer belt broke at 50mph! i fitted a set of rockers and the car caried on for another 50k....

lucky its the 2.0.... if it was the 2.2 youd have a job gettin the head off if the inectors wouldnt come oit... but no need for any of that on the 2.0.....

[citroenxm]

belt breakages are common on c8 and 806... the clever fiat design allows windscreen water to drip onto the cam cover.. and get onto the belt... it does on the 2.2 16v engines so im guessing the 2.0 is the same...

[Lighty]

Might be that the water pump failed, I won't do a belt on one of these without a new pump.
I don't profess to be a world expert on this, but I think the 2.0 C8'engine is different to the 8v 2.0 in a let's say C5.
I am almost certain that the injectors have to come out to get the rocker cover off. This is a major problem, as they seize in very badly.

[citroenxm]

if its the 16v engine yes injectors will need to come out.. but not if its 8v unit...

[Lighty]

I dont think there is an 8v C8

[wheeler]

Yeah, all the 2.0 HDi C8's i've ever seen are 16v's & the engine is almost identical to the 2.2 meaning they suffer from the same injector problems. Can be an even harder job on the C8 due to limited access, If the injectors give you trouble removing them then sometimes engine removal can be an easier option to give you better access.

[alden]

if you take the engine out , check the duel mass flywheel as they get mucky and eventually shatter. and the sub frame has to come off to drop the engine,( which is a tw%t of a job as all the bolts are known to seaze up)