In for a penny....

[lexi]

In for a pound. The Donk C5 has proven to run good and drive well. PO has had brakes and discs all round (new front calipers too) and a new back exhaust box.
He said it had a new clutch 3 yrs ago. Who knows

Now: these belts. Where do you stop? My instinct is to start afresh with aux belt and tensioner, plus the full cam belt kit with water pump.
That is a few quid. Old car but only 108k and no rust threats underneath (solid things).
I check the aux belt with torch and mirror. Cracking on belt, so that is coming off. PO bought car with 70k on it and he ain't done cam belt, so I doubt it was done at before 70k. No noise from pulleys........just a faint squeak on shut down. I know they can break even though they only drive on camshaft. What have others done?
Not looking forward to it either Even those cam belt covers are a total PITA to get off!

[Peter.N.]

I have done the cambelt on my C5 and also on the 406, it wasn't really any worse than any other diesel I've done except for the hidden bolt on the top timing cover, its round the back of the engine! with the bolt head facing the bulkhead, having found that the rest was fairly straightforward.

You don't have to time the fuel pump of course but I have found locking the engine at TDC a pain, so after fitting the cam pulley locking bolt I cleaned off the front of the engine above the crankshaft sprocket and put a dab of paint on it and the sprocket before removing the belt. I timed it up using these marks and had no problems. I tensioned the belt in the time honoured way of a 90 degree twist at the top. No problems so far.

Peter

[lexi]

I am leaning towards doing belts only. Thanks Peter

[Hell Razor5543]

Make sure to do the water pump as well. Apparently they can start leaking if they are disturbed (they start wetting themselves as they are now nervous!), although I have not done a belt change myself (just read what is posted here).

[Peter.N.]

I had that happen once on an XM so I change them as a matter of course now, not very difficult and quite cheap on ebay.

Peter

[RichardW]

The hidden bolt is fairly easily removed with a 10mm flex head ratchet spanner. I'd come and spectate, but going to be a bit busy over the next few weeks with extension building....

See here: http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... 11&t=33939" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[lexi]

Thanks for the offer Richard and the link. Some other time mate. There is a haynes manual here that covers Xantia hdi, so it may be of help till I get C5 manual. Yes Ally ......water pump. I will end up doing the lot........it is my nature
ATB with house stuff. If you need a brain pick, on roof or render etc, give me a mail.

[dnsey]

Seconded re locking the crankshaft!
Even when you find the flywheel hole, it's a pain to get a pin into, and if you follow the correct procedure needs doing several times. Work round it however suits you best, but don't use the crankshaft pulley as a reference - they can move relative to the shaft.

[Stewart(oily)]

I have a piece of threaded bar bent to a sinuous shape for crank locking, I seem to be getting more accurate at finding the hole I think the ~;>++ bolt on the rear of the belt covers is 11mm, there are several at the back of the garage, they tend to fly there after an eternity undoing them one flat at a time
I would replace the water pump while I was in there, one less thing to think about while driving on the motorway miles from home, I have had a tensioner/idler pulley come apart on the later engines too (DW8) now that made a mess !
Its a miracle that I can sleep with the worry of it all.

[RichardW]

The bolt on the HDi is 10mm, same as all the others - but since they didn't want life to be easy, they threadlocked the buggers in, so they need winding all the way out with a spanner I don't think the link to the french site works anymore on my post, but there was a picture on there of the 'difficult' bolt on a LHD drive car - easily accessible from below with a socket and extension

Ah, it is working... here it is



Note on later cars the vernier cam was deleted in favour of a floating crank sprocket - therefore on these you really should lock the crank shaft to ensure proper timing.

[lexi]

Good pic Richard. I have some decent stuff on order. Cam belt kit, w/p, t/stat. crank pully, aux belt.

Need new coolant. It is OAT stuff?

[dnsey]

Yes, it's OAT.
I found it quite difficult to check which ones meet PSA's spec, but a technical rep at Bluecol confirmed that their '5 year' stuff is compatible.