Xantia 2.1TD Cambelt Replacement - Blow by Blow

[CitroJim]

I am delighted to report that I have finally cracked the problem I had with the cambelt tensioner locking bolt when I first attempted this job. The old tensioner is now off and a new one is waitiing to go on.

It was a struggle but I won the battle

A full Blow by Blow account will follow in this thread. It is not as easy and straightforward as a 1.9TD

[MikeT]

Good on ya Jim!! I knew you wouldn't let it beat you though your threat to throw in the towel and give it to a garage had me a little concerned. I look forward to the solution you found.

[CitroJim]

Right, here we go This is to replace belt, spring tensioner and waterpump.

If you've done a 1.9TD or XU petrol engine cambelt before it'll help as many of the basic principles are the same but made more difficult in the 2.1TD.

First off, the belt, waterpump and tensioner are different to those fitted to the 1.9TD and are not interchangable. The belt is longer, the tensioner works on a different principle and the water pump is huge. It bolts into a separate alloy housing at the back of the block.

First off, the usual jubs. Up on axle stands, suspension on low, O/S/F wheel off, mudshield off, auxillary belt off (same as a 1.9TD, loosen eccentric tensioner and off comes the belt), handbrake on, engage fifth gear and undo the crank pulley centre bolt. It may be really tight and you may need to enlist the help of the starter motor. Hopefully not. Mine was as the last person there had eaten 4 Weetabix for breakfast and had shares in Loctite Remove the crank pulley. Remove completely the Auxillary belt eccentric tensioner (1 x 6mm Allen).

Now get a jack under the sump and remove the top RH engine mount. Losen the nut on the mount rubber attached to the wing and jack until the mount casting is just above. Now remove the bolt through the centre of the big rubber donut to the side of the mount. Remove the mount taking care of cables, fuel lines and etc. Remove the bolt through the smaller donut and remove the fork. This arrangement on the top engine mount is very similar to the arrangement on the bottom mount.

Remove the two bolts securing the front timing belt cover (over the IP pump) and remove the cover. Remove the bolt holding the rear timing cover, reach behind and unclip the fuel return line which is held in a clip attached to the cover and then, with a screwdriver, press down and rotate a 1/4 turn the clip securing the top of the cover. Lift the cover off.

Down below, remove the three bolts (2 x 10mm and 1 x 13mm) holding the lower cover and carefully remove. Note that it is not so easy as the top ones and some bending, flexing and imagination is needed.

Remove the airbox. Arm yourself with 3 x 8mm timing pins and a length of copper brake pipe. Disconnet the battery. Rotate the engine (via 5th gear, handbrake off and a chock jammed under the N/S/F tyre and rotating the O/S/F hub) to bring the engine to time. Work the brake pipe in behind the starter and whilst peering down behind the starter, locate the timing hole. It's right behind the starter and high up, a slightly different spot to the 1.9TD but in the same area. Rotate the engine slightly until the pipe goes in and locks the engine. Pin the cam sprocket and IP sprocket.

That is the easy stuff done. If you're not changing the tensioner, there is no need to remove the engine mount from the engine. If you are then it must be.

There is a trick to removing the mount and if you're good at Tetris it helps...

On to the next part in the next post. Removing the mount, belt and tensioner.

[CitroJim]

If you are not changing the tensioner, ignore the next bit but just bear in mind there is a hole in the engine mount bracket to access the tensioner release cam.

The engine mount bracket at first looks impossible to remove as its four mounting bolts are so near the chassis rail. espcially the bottom two that have unused projecting threads on them. In fact, once you know the trick it is not so difficult.

To remove the engine mount bracket in order to get at the tensioner, firstly remove the big round rubber mount from the wing (2 x 13mm studs) noting it's orientation. The plate between it and the mount proper is keyed and will only go on one way. Then jack the engine up so that the top front mount bracket bolt is alighed with the chassis rail cutout just below the point where the rubber mount attaches. Undo and and remove the bolt. Loosen only the top rear bolt, which is well in the clear.

Now jack the engine as high as it will go and you'll see the bottom mount bolts just align with the cutouts. Carefully remove them.

This is where the fun starts. The mount bracket is dowelled onto the head. You need to draw the dowel out by screwing a 10mm bolt into it and doing it up against the flange on the bracket. The dowel is captive in the bracket and will not come right out. Loosen just a little the 5mm Alllen bolt accessible through the hole in the bracket to unlock the tensioner release cam. Loosen the 10mm nut on the centre of the tensioner roller. Insert a small 10mm socket into the hole in the bracket, over the top of the Allen bolt you've just loosened. Engage on the hex of the release cam and turn CLOCKWISE to release the tension on the cambelt. It'll stay put in the released position. Remove the cambelt.

Now remove the last bolt holding the bracket and the bracket may, if you're lucky, with some jiggling come up and away. except that it may well not as the Allen bolt fouls it and in order to rotate it sufficiently, the Injection Pump sprocket gets in the way. I had to remove the pump sprocket. This can be done by removing the centre nut (19mm) and using an improvised puller consisting of a metal bar with two holes drilled in it to take 2 x 11mm bolts to meet up with the two M7 threads in the IP sprocket pulley. Pull the pulley off, taking care not to loose the woodruff key.

The bracket will now come off with a bit of jiggling. Don't loose the dowel.

To remove the tensioner, release the tension by loosening the Allen bolt if necessary and turning the cam anti-clockwise. Remove the Allen bolt and cam.

Remove the 10mm flanged nut from the centre of the tensioner roller and replace this with two ordinary 10mm nuts locked together. The roller sits on a special stud screwed into the side of the head and the only way to remove it is to lock two nuts on its thread and undo it that way. It'll be stiff and tight as the stud has Loctite on it from the factory. Beware the tensioner will fall off as the stud comes out. Be ready to catch it. Tease the stud out of the roller by aligning the flats on its shoulder with the slot in the roller.

Take a moment to be staggered that such a critical component under such stress is held on to the head by two 10mm (M6) studs only. Compare to the positively over-engineered mounting of the 1.9TD tensioner generally.

Now the tensioner is out of the way, look down and see how fantastically accessible (relatively) the water pump is.

The water pump will be the subject of the next post..

[CitroJim]

The water pump is a doddle by what has gone so far. It is held into the casting with five very long bolts. All identical.

As I say, with the tensioner removed, access is a doddle and most of the bolts can be removed from the top, rather than lying on your back in puddles of anti-freeze, as is often the case with a 1.9TD

I got my water pump from GSF and was surprised to find it came without a gasket. I was a bit concerned about this and bought a gasket from my local Stealer and had to wait a week for it as well. Strictly, a new gasket is not needed as when I removed my pump I found a thin metal gasket with a smear of sealant on it. Mine was the original, dated 09/96 and had just started to weep a little and have a slightly rough bearing. After 91,000 miles it was ready for retirement.

I drained the cooling system by loosening off all the waterpump studs and allowed the coolant to leak out past the pump into a big cat-litter tray. A bit messy but it saves disturbing hoses and otherwise that would be the only way as my radiator is a pattern replacement and has no drain cock

I decided to use the new Citroen gasket with my new pump. Thuis one is made of normal gasket material and is not metal. I've kept my old metal one for possible future use.

Tomorrow I'll deal with the reassembly. Mostly it is a straight reversal of disassembly, as the BoL would say...

[i3]

hey Jim,
do you think a novice would be able to carry this out successfully just by following your above posts?
thanks

[i3]

http://info.citroen.co.uk/finance-and-s ... roen_parts" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

is £295 a good price for the timing belt? or is it expensive?
thanks

[CitroJim]

hey Jim,
do you think a novice would be able to carry this out successfully just by following your above posts?
thanks

I don't see why not. It's straightforward once you work out how the tensioner operates and releases.

£295 is a lot for the belt though... Go to one of the regular factors like GSF, AEP or ECP. Basically, you need to replace the belt and tensioner. It;s a very good idea to do the water pump at the same time. Full cost of parts should not come in much over a ton...

[i3]

not sure if i can do it...contemplating whether i should attempt it, or pay for it...
no Jim, i meant £295 for the job, supply and fit from citroen, that's what it's saying in that link right...?

[CitroJim]

£295 is about the competitive going rate for the job now and actually not bad...

My nephew had a 205D cambelt done the other week and the cost was well in excess of £400...

[i3]

hmmm...
i may try it...i can get someone to do the belt timing bit...so just stripping and then putting all back together, how long will it take in reality for a novice?

[CitroJim]

how long will it take in reality for a novice?

A good day...

[i3]

hmmm....
think i just try to do it myself...
going to need to do it pretty soon i think... bought the new xantia, and it has 197,500 on the clock now, with no record of cambelt change...the problem is, i don't even have any record of the first change scheduled for 80,000, so then i could establish if the second change has been done at 160,000... by simple initiative, i would think yes it has been done twice, otherwise it would be dead by now,,but am not sure and don't really want to take the risk...
the odd thing is, it has plenty of service history, from new, with gaps, but nothing anywhere about timing belts...

[i3]

Jim, to inspect the belt, does the entire removal procedure you have provided need to be carried out?
or can i just unbolt the belt cover?
thanks

[CitroJim]

To be honest, it's as much work to have the covers off as it is ton change the belt. To do so means removal of the auxiliary belt, the crank pulley and the top engine mount.

Even then, there is nothing you can do to assess the condition of the belt. They generally look perfect and you cannot see any deterioration unless it's heavy oil contamination.