UKSaabs

Friend of mine (neighbour) knocked at 07:30 this morning asking if I could look at his car as it was making a 'funny noise' (he knows I was a tech at VX etc).

Went and had a look and the noise was very much coming from the aux / cambelt end and sounded like a collapsed bearing. Popped the aux belt off and started the car and the same noise was present so had to be a pulley on the cam belt.

So - off to Vauxhall I went and returned with a cam belt kit and waterpump (and coolant)...

2 hrs later he was off to work with a fresh cam belt kit fitted and waterpump. I reckon he was VERY luck he heard the noise as he started the car and went outside it to scrape the windows of ice. Had he had just got in it and drove off could have been a different story as the waterpump was very nearly seized!!! eeek.. Sounds spot on now.

Lucky I was 'Working from home' today

Just thought I would share todays events....

A

Well done Ant, quick work too!

Just had my cambelt done on my Tid and my water pump was also starting to fail - history suggesting it was no more than 30,000 old!

two hours is good you could earn a good rate from members for them
seems quotes of 600 quid are usual for the belt and pump on these

Lucky man, lucky tech, you have some money for presents now.....

Rob

datonyb wrote:two hours is good you could earn a good rate from members for them
seems quotes of 600 quid are usual for the belt and pump on these

£600!!! WOW...

I get the full GM kits incl the pump for £150 - £170 ish and normally charge £80 to fit..

Done loads for members on the Vec-c forums.. One guy paid me to drive 3 hrs to him to do his (and back of course ) so he could watch and see it done correctly - lol

Chris B wrote:Well done Ant, quick work too!

Just had my cambelt done on my Tid and my water pump was also starting to fail - history suggesting it was no more than 30,000 old!

Bloomin ek!! I dont know what Saab used to say - but at VX it was a 100K interval initially. Far to many failures came in so that was then changed to 60k..

Needless to say - it was never the belts that gave up - always a siezed pulley (water pump mainly) that would kill the belts and cause them to snap or run off.

Good thing with the CDTI150 engine is that they are designed to break the rockers and not much more so at least that something I suppose... Still a big task though.

...of course - I have seen failures of less than 10K on cheaper 3rd party pumps and pulleys... I will only ever fit GM stuff when it comes to belt kits and pumps etc.

not to mention the alfa forums as well plenty of jtd 1.9's
£250 is ridiclous cheap price

datonyb wrote:not to mention the alfa forums as well plenty of jtd 1.9's
£250 is ridiclous cheap price

LOL - ill get the diary ready

Seriously though - it is actually a very nice engine to work on.. Access is good on these once the mount is out the way which I asume is the case across all the cars running the CDTI150 engine...

Done many of the CDTI120's too - only difference with that is you have to remove the cam pulley to take the water pump off which is a pain (a must is to remember to losen the bolt before you remove the belt so you can hold it secure...), but apart from that - exactly the same.

Ok - not meaning to bore you all - but here are some pics of when I did mine a few months ago .. Pay attention now..






(ignore the marks - that was the previous owner it seems - no idea what he was up too - lol)

I can tell that you all love the pics..

hehehehehehe....

well i cant ignore the marks

are the two lines on the new belt there at the factory product to purposely align with the crank and cam?

datonyb wrote:well i cant ignore the marks

are the two lines on the new belt there at the factory product to purposely align with the crank and cam?

Yes so...

Before you remove the old belt you need to get the engine TDC. To do this you align the crank pully notch with the notch on the outer casing, so at about 5'oclock as you can see in the pic.

Then this should put the white factory mark on the cam pully at approx 1'oclock. If its at 7'oclock you just rotate the crank pully round again (belt attached!!) so that the cam pully lines to 1'oclock. THEN if you need/want to you can mark the cam pully casing so you know exactly where the cam pully needs to be should it move when you take the belt off.

When you then put the new belt on. The GM belts have yellow timing marks. Get the belt the right way arouns and start at the crank. Line up the yellow mark with the notch alignment on the crank pully and come up the outside so that the next yellow timing mark then goes on the cam pully at exactly the white mark on the cam pully. Attach the rest of the belt to the diesel pump pulley (doesnt need any alignment) and round the water pump / tensioner, set the tensioner correctly (VERY important) and the belt is on...

Can I ask roughly where in the country you're based? I could do with a neighbour like you!!
I'm thinking my belt and pump will be due replacement soon, I'm considering tackling it myself, I'm fairly handy with the spanners but I've not done one before, world be handy to have an expert on hand.
From your pics/write up, and a you tube vid I've seen, it does look fairly straight forward, and doesn't seem like use of any special locking tools are required?

steve95 wrote:Can I ask roughly where in the country you're based? I could do with a neighbour like you!!
I'm thinking my belt and pump will be due replacement soon, I'm considering tackling it myself, I'm fairly handy with the spanners but I've not done one before, world be handy to have an expert on hand.
From your pics/write up, and a you tube vid I've seen, it does look fairly straight forward, and doesn't seem like use of any special locking tools are required?

Am in Ashford, MIddlesex, very near Heathrow.

There is a locking tool that you can use - but you absolutly dont need it. In the 100's that I have done - I have never used it..

Unfortunately nowhere near me then.
Thanks for the pics and write up though, very useful, I think I will tackle it when the time is right.
So am I right in thinking the process is...
Support engine with beefy trolley jack
Remove engine mount near the timing cover
Jack engine up a bit further for access
Follow your steps re getting it tdc before removing old belt
Old belt off, replace tensioner, water pump, top up coolant
New belt going on - only have to worry about timing marks lining up on crank pulley (bottom) and cam pulley (top right) - even on the 16v?
Feed belt round the rest of the pulleys and torque up the tensioner
Cover and engine mount back on
Pub to celebrate
!!!???

steve95 wrote:Unfortunately nowhere near me then.
Thanks for the pics and write up though, very useful, I think I will tackle it when the time is right.
So am I right in thinking the process is...
Support engine with beefy trolley jack
Remove engine mount near the timing cover
Jack engine up a bit further for access
Follow your steps re getting it tdc before removing old belt
Old belt off, replace tensioner, water pump, top up coolant
New belt going on - only have to worry about timing marks lining up on crank pulley (bottom) and cam pulley (top right) - even on the 16v?
Feed belt round the rest of the pulleys and torque up the tensioner
Cover and engine mount back on
Pub to celebrate
!!!???

Sort of... So roughly speaking:

Remove coolant hose from Thermostat so that the coolant drains to lower than the waterpump
Remove Airbox
Support engine on Trolly Jack with Wood across the comeple Sump
Remove Engine mount
Remove Aux Belt (jacking engine for access as needed)
Remove Aux Belt tensioner
Remove upper Aux Belt roller pully
Remove Top cam belt cover
Remove Crank anti-vibration pully - IMPORTANT - this is NOT the main crank pully - this is the anti-vibration pully that attaches to the main crank pulley via 4 ribe bolts
Remove lower cam belt cover (metal place) now bolts are exposed from removing aux belt and rollers / pulleys / tensioner
Now cambelt is exposed
Set to TDC as described and mark cam pulley on casing if required (worth it for first few times)
Slacken tensioner buy undoing main tensioner bolt
Remove cam belt and disregard
Remove tensioner
Remove cam belt roller pully next to tensioner
Jack engine to highest point
Place blue towel / suitable absorbant paper towel under waterpump (this is to stop excess coolant spilling onto other pulleys etc - dont worry if some does - not really a problem)
Undo the three water pump bolts
Remove waterpump (may need a slight tap)
Now Important bit: WIRE BRUSH waterpump bolts until ALL sealant is removed!
Wipe waterpump location clean and dry of coolant - may take a few mins for coolant to stop being present - hence the jacking of engine
Now another Important bit: cover the thread of the now cleaned waterpump bolts in silicone sealant. Not excessive but enough to seal the threads. Apply a blob onto the bolt and work it into the thread with your fingers
Fit new waterpump and tighten sealed waterpump bolts - I seem to recall the torque is 25nm (may be 30 - cant remember would need to check)
Fit new cam belt roller pully from the kit using the new bolt
Losly fit new tensioner with new bolt
Attach the belt as described further up lining up yellow timing marks - be sure this is correct
Tension the tensioner correctly. Difficult to describe - but you need to put a casing bolt back into the threaded hole just underneath the tensioner and use a suitable large screwdriver to leaver out the tensioner until the arrow points to the hole (as shown in the pic above)
Once arrow aligned to hole on the tensioner tighten tensioner bolt to, again 25 or 30nm
Rotate the engine VIA CRANK PULLY BOLT ONLY 360degrees and ensure there is no resistance and that your timing marks re align. Dont worry about the yellow marks on the belt as they will move as not evenly spaced on the belt - but ensure that once rotated 360degrees via crank that the crank pully and casing notch align and that your cam pully mark (white one in pic) is at the mark you marked on the casing (one oclock) - you will notice at this point that the yellow timing belt marker will be on the white mark
Slacken the tensioner now engine has rotated 360degrees and re tension to correct mark (as above - arrow to hole etc)

Re assemble in reverse

I think thats it - thats just a very quick off the top of my head list.

Get the correct torque settings for all the pulleys and bolts etc - its important. Thats the ONLY think I use the Haynes manual for if you dont have access to TIS / WIS.

Hope that helps

A

....and of course - use only a genuine GM cambelt KIT and waterpump. Really not worth fitting anything else. Seen far to many OEM / 3party products fail. GM had there kits to certain specs that the OEM versions dont.

Wow, fantastic, really appreciated.
Yeah I do have access to WIS (TIS too come to think of it - from when I had the corsa - no stranger to changing rear wheel bearings I can tell you!) so i can look up the torque settings, but your write up has some top tips additional to what I recall from there and is also in a more understandable plain English
But just to confirm, even on the 16v, there's still only one cam pulley to worry about getting in time?
Thanks again

steve95 wrote:Wow, fantastic, really appreciated.
Yeah I do have access to WIS (TIS too come to think of it - from when I had the corsa - no stranger to changing rear wheel bearings I can tell you!) so i can look up the torque settings, but your write up has some top tips additional to what I recall from there and is also in a more understandable plain English
But just to confirm, even on the 16v, there's still only one cam pulley to worry about getting in time?
Thanks again

Yes - one cam pully.. Its attached to one cam and the other is driven off that internally.