Xantia cambelt !

[froggy]

Hi , my Xantia 1997, td , needs a new cambelt !
Is this something I can do myself ? I have been quoted £254 by my local garage for a new belt fitted . They say , if it needs a new water pump or bearings , then the price WILL go up !
Any advice or help greatfully received .
cheers Terry

[jgra1]

hi Terry.. yes is my answer.. grab a belt kit, the water pump etc and allow a nice sunny weekend day..

plenty of us have done them, on here.. various posts etc
my xantia blog has a pic or two of that side of engine buried in it somewhere too

John

[davetherave]

You can do almost anything yourself, (nearly), the haynes manual has a pretty good guide for doing the cam.

I found citroen specialist tools 1* +2** rather usefull in manouvering the engine block.

*Long bit of wood
** shorter bit of wood.

Dave

[CitroJim]

The biggest problem normally is getting the crank pulley centre bolt undone, although there are methods

Apart from thet, the job is a nice, comfortable one and as said, given good treatment by Haynes in the BoL.

ALWAYS replace the water pump. The love to fail precisely 10 days, 26 hours and 14 minutes after a belt change if you don't.

I love your special tools Dave

[spider]

The angled piece of rod is useful to save whipping the starter off to get at the hole in the bellhousing to lock the flywheel (although the design of some pattern starter motors mean it does not fit, fortunately that's rare) , in any case it only needs to come out about 30mm to get to the hole anyway, no need to disconnect cables.

Caution: Disconnect battery if unbolting starter!

[red_dwarfers]

I found citroen specialist tools 1* +2** rather usefull in manouvering the engine block.

*Long bit of wood
** shorter bit of wood.

Dave

Citroen specialist tool 1 in use while changing the cambelt/tensioners/water pump and coolant:

[NewcastleFalcon]

Hello Terry

I have just done mine, probably about 30,000 miles too late, as I have had to deal with the aftermath of a cambelt failure. However you end up doing it I would say get it done, and dont put it off.

For me as long as you get the timing bolts in the camshaft sprocket, the injection pump sprocket and the flywheel you can't go far wrong.

I dont think I used the most efficient methods, and spent more time than necessary trying to get the tensioner pushed back out of the way and nipping up the bolt to keep it there when putting the new belt on. As a result the belt was still a fairly snug fit over the sprockets and had to be eased over the tensioner roller with a poke from a long breaker bar.

I think for the sake of removing 3 bolts, it is better to take the starter motor off. That way it takes away the hit and miss of locating the timing pin hole for the flywheel.

Even if you get completely stuck at stage 1- removing the crankshaft pulley bolt, (see my thread Crankshaft Pulley Bolt 1 Newcastle Falcon 0) there are ways and means of getting round this.

kind regards

Neil

[the_weaver]

If you're changing the water pump, make sure you get the right one. Some pumps have a metal guard for the sprocket as part of the pump, some don't. If you get the wrong one you'll waste loads of time.

Paul

[spider]

If you're changing the water pump, make sure you get the right one. Some pumps have a metal guard for the sprocket as part of the pump, some don't. If you get the wrong one you'll waste loads of time.

Paul

This is true

A quick guide is : If you cambelt covers are bolted on you need the pump with the guide (sometimes called 'with protection') basically part of the casting is around the sprocket area on the pump.

If your cambelt covers are clipped on (unlikely given your year, typically they stopped this at about 93) you need one without the guide. This one does not have anything around the sprocket area on the pump.

Its very easy to see the difference if you see both.

[Old-Guy]

I did a write up of the job (as a new Xantia owner), you can find it on my Xantia web pages