What type of belt chain?

[Peter Palmer]

Hi, can someone make sense of what I need to look out for buying a new van regarding if its a chain or wet belt or whatever.

I want either a dispatch or Berlingo or alternatively a Peugot partner or expert, all around 2018/2019/20 sort of age. My confusion lies with the 1.5 engines, I was under the impression that the 1.5 was a chain that snapped being a bit too thin or alternatively was a wet belt that snapped like the transits but doing a bit of research it could be anything from what I can see.

This video says its a 1.5 engine but the belt looks exactly like the 1.6 belt I changed the other year.



I cant even work out if they are 8 or 16 valves even, its all very confusing.

[Steve Walsh]

The 1.5 Blue HDI is a dry belt to one cam and a chain between the 2 cams. Originaly with a 7mm chain and then later an 8mm chain. some are being changed under warranty if giving a problem, is not just the chain but cams etc.
Admin will probably give more up to date info. Mine was changed last year under Citroen Warranty

[Peter Palmer]

Cheers, is the chain at the other end of the engine to the belt then? And why are they back to 16 valves again, the old 1.6's were originally 16 valves, then they changed to 8 valves and not it seems they are back to 16 again. Do you know the date the chain was increased in size by any chance.

[Steve Walsh]

Sorry don't know the date they changed, mine is a March 2021 and was a 7mm chain, chain is on same end as belt

[PaulC5]

For the 1.5 hdi, I think the change to an 8mm cam shaft chain was in the last 1 or 2 years so anything before 2023 is likely to have a 7mm chain, unless it has been replaced by a dealer for the 8mm chain/cam shaft/etc kit.

[RichardW]

Generally the 8mm chain didn't come in till Jan '23 - anything before that should be suspect of having a 7mm. There are some lower powered variants of this engine that are still 8V - but maybe only in Ford vans. The best protection is to change oil regularly, and use the latest spec oil.

I assume the change back to 16V was to extract more power and get better emissions whilst dropping the displacement - needed better breathing. With the smaller cylinders, they probably ran out of room for the valve heads!