My CDTi belt/crank pulley change saga

[EastPete]

As a relative newbie attacking this job for the first time, I thought I would run a thread on this, to seek help when I hit problems, but also in the hope that it may be useful for others thinking of doing this job for the first time on their cars. Experienced members who have done this job many times before will probably wonder what all the fuss is about, but it always easy when you know how !

The auxillary belts on my car look OK, with only 36K on the clock, but have never been changed since the car left the factory in 2005. Also, in an attempt to deal with continuing problems with vibrations emanating from the offside engine/inner wing area, with some characteristic clicking/ slapping noise at idle from the pulley area, I decided to splash out and change the pulley to see if it quietened things down (I have already done the hydramount, which helped to some extent). I have a genuine Corteco item from DMGRS.

I am in no hurry to complete the job, so spent about an hour in the garage this afternoon on the initial part of the job. Jacked up the car onto axle stands under the front jacking points, removed the offside wheel. Removed the undertray and engine top cover and air intake from the top of the engine. Removed the offside wheel arch liner, as per Haynes manual - relatively straightforward except I have front mudflaps, which took a bit of persuading to come off (lots of crud behind them - I must clean up and waxoyl behind there before putting them back on).

So far so good - just thought I would see if the two long 24 mm spanners I have would fit over the belt tensioner. First problem - both spanners are too thick to clear the inner wing and fit over the tensioner bolt, even though one of them is a slimline aviation spanner reported by someone on here to be ideal for this job (picture below). I am going away to sleep on this, but initial thought is that I might loosen the lower engine mount and the two 15mm bolts on the bracket over the hydramount, so see if I can shift the engine a new millimetres sideways to allow the spanner to go over the tensioner bolt head - I only need 3-4 mm I think to give it enough room. I may try that tomorrow, but if that fails, I may have to contact Harry on here for loan of the special tool for doing the belts. I haven't even got to the pulley bolt yet !!

Anyway, I will try to post updates as the job progresses for anyone that is interested - all comments, suggestions, ridicule, abuse etc. will be of interest !

Thanks

Pete

[Alan123]

Originally Posted by EastPete

As a relative newbie attacking this job for the first time, I thought I would run a thread on this, to seek help when I hit problems, but also in the hope that it may be useful for others thinking of doing this job for the first time on their cars. Experienced members who have done this job many times before will probably wonder what all the fuss is about, but it always easy when you know how !

The auxillary belts on my car look OK, with only 36K on the clock, but have never been changed since the car left the factory in 2005. Also, in an attempt to deal with continuing problems with vibrations emanating from the offside engine/inner wing area, with some characteristic clicking/ slapping noise at idle from the pulley area, I decided to splash out and change the pulley to see if it quietened things down (I have already done the hydramount, which helped to some extent). I have a genuine Corteco item from DMGRS.

I am in no hurry to complete the job, so spent about an hour in the garage this afternoon on the initial part of the job. Jacked up the car onto axle stands under the front jacking points, removed the offside wheel. Removed the undertray and engine top cover and air intake from the top of the engine. Removed the offside wheel arch liner, as per Haynes manual - relatively straightforward except I have front mudflaps, which took a bit of persuading to come off (lots of crud behind them - I must clean up and waxoyl behind there before putting them back on).

So far so good - just thought I would see if the two long 24 mm spanners I have would fit over the belt tensioner. First problem - both spanners are too thick to clear the inner wing and fit over the tensioner bolt, even though one of them is a slimline aviation spanner reported by someone on here to be ideal for this job (picture below). I am going away to sleep on this, but initial thought is that I might loosen the lower engine mount and the two 15mm bolts on the bracket over the hydramount, so see if I can shift the engine a new millimetres sideways to allow the spanner to go over the tensioner bolt head - I only need 3-4 mm I think to give it enough room. I may try that tomorrow, but if that fails, I may have to contact Harry on here for loan of the special tool for doing the belts. I haven't even got to the pulley bolt yet !!

Anyway, I will try to post updates as the job progresses for anyone that is interested - all comments, suggestions, ridicule, abuse etc. will be of interest !

Thanks

Pete

I've heard they can be a pain in the ass
Hence got garage to do it £28 labour.
I would of love to of done it myself but I was ill at the time it went so it was worth the cost at the time

[first-things-first]

Sounds like you have the same tight access to tensioner I had. No spanner (including Harry's proper jobbie) could be put on the 24mm nut.

Not trying to sound negative. You are having a go which is the main part.

I got belt off reasonably easy by going via the top (with top mount off and engine on jack) and used a ground down 24mm ring spanner.

There was a lot of tension to release.

To get new belt back on, in the end I tried going via the top with the same ground down spanner and nearly got it back on. Just a little more leverage that I could not apply due to mounts and air con pipes.

Had to give up in the end. Got garage to do it. He went via top method as well.

I believe you will have better luck than me.

If you feel alright with it, I would suggest taking a bit off the spanner to get in the gap between the wing and nut. Or jacking the engine up may well help to give more access.

[EastPete]

I am beginning to regret starting this job - not enjoying it at all !

I have just spent another hour out the garage. Tweaking the engine mounts did not provide any more room for the 24mm spanner, so I got out the angle grinder and took a couple of millimetres off the ring spanner. Good news: it now fitted (just) onto the tensioner nut. Bad news - when it turned, even after several anti-clockwise turns, nothing appeared to happen to the belt tension. Looking closely, the nut at the back of the tensioner seems to be turning when the 24mm nut on the outside is turned - is this meant to happen, or do I need to get a spanner onto the smaller nut at the back ? (looks well nigh impossible to get anything in there !)

All suggestions gratefully received.

Off to lunch now !

Thanks

Pete

[first-things-first]

Oh dear. Looks like another with exactly my problems.

The tensioner pulley sits on an arm and hangs down or up (not sure which one at mo). When you come at it from a high angle (about 8 o'clock) you are pushing against the tension but in the wrong way - pushing it against the front of the car. It will seem to tension but when released does not spring back.

The technique is to start from around 6 o'clock ish then the force is applied to back of car by anti clockwise movement.

Hope this helps. I thought my tensioner nut was moving as well due to this lack of tension.

As I said previously if you come from above you can start at slam panel and go back towards car - needs mount removed and engine on jack ...

Another had a problem with nut behind tensioner - see here. http://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/foru...ight=tensioner

Best of luck.

[mickm1]

Mines in with Cossie Dunc from here just now to replace crank shaft pulley. Thought my car was about to explode with the racket it was making so picked up the corteco one yesterday.

[Departed 32016]

Originally Posted by mickm1

Mines in with Cossie Dunc from here just now to replace crank shaft pulley. Thought my car was about to explode with the racket it was making so picked up the corteco one yesterday.

Do you mind me asking the cost, did you supply the parts

[EastPete]

Originally Posted by first-things-first

Oh dear. Looks like another with exactly my problems.

The tensioner pulley sits on an arm and hangs down or up (not sure which one at mo). When you come at it from a high angle (about 8 o'clock) you are pushing against the tension but in the wrong way - pushing it against the front of the car. It will seem to tension but when released does not spring back.

The technique is to start from around 6 o'clock ish then the force is applied to back of car by anti clockwise movement.

Hope this helps. I thought my tensioner nut was moving as well due to this lack of tension.

As I said previously if you come from above you can start at slam panel and go back towards car - needs mount removed and engine on jack ...

Another had a problem with nut behind tensioner - see here. http://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/foru...ight=tensioner

Best of luck.

Thanks Andrew

I may go for removing the top engine mount as the next step, as you suggest.

Two questions:
1. Is the nut on the back of the tensioner supposed to turn at the same time as the 24mm nut on the front ?? I was not sure.

2. What should it feel like as the tensioner is 'undone' - it just felt like a normal bolt turning when I tried it this morning - should there be a spring you are fighting against, or a sudden release of tension at some point ? . The Haynes manual suggests you just need to turn the nut a short way anti-clockwise and the tension will come off the belts, but perhaps it does not work like that - what sort of arc do you need to rotate the nut to get the belt tension released ?

Thanks for your help.

Best regards

Pete

[first-things-first]

Hi Pete

1. Not sure myself. I think when rotating the tensioner it looks as if the nut is moving. The thread is a special anti clockwise one so you are not undoing it by applying force to the tensioner.

2. To undo you should not need huge movement. Would say an arc of about 50 degrees. The spring tension is quite a lot and should feel like you are holding quite a bit of tension. When released (I came in from the top to get belt off) my spanner finally released tension at slam panel. The tension to get belt off meant spanner was moved to air con pipes by suspension turret, so the arc was from there to slam panel.

Haynes book of "just do this" eh.

All the best

Andrew

[EastPete]

Well, many thanks to Andrew (first-things-irst - nice to speak to you on the phone earlier, Andrew)

I took his advice and placed a jack under the engine, and then removed the upper engine mount, including the bracket over the hydramount and the bracket behind the hydramount that bolts to the inner wing. This then gives plenty of room for the long 24mm spanner to swing back through a good arc when placed on the tensioner - see photos below for the 'starting' position for the removal of the main auxillary belt. With the spanner initially resting against the slam panel, I pushed it back until it was just past the vertical position, and the tensioner released, and it was easy to reach underneath and slip the belt off the crank pulley whilst holding the spanner up above. A couple of 10mm bolts to release and the air con belt was off in no time.

Only two and a half hours on the job so far, and I have not even tackled the crank pulley bolt yet !

I have bolted the engine mount sback in place, because I think I will need all the help I can get when it comes to shifting the pulley bolt - it seems sensible to have the engine well strapped down for that !

I really do not think I could have got the belts off using the accepted method of attacking the tensioner from underneath the wheel arch - Andrew had to get his done from the top as well on his 2005 car. Perhaps there is something about the very late cars (2005) that have a different tensioner or less clearance that makes the job almost impossible using the usual method in the manuals.

Anyway, updates will follow - next job is to get the starter motor off ready for attacking the pulley bolt - might be tomorrow or day after.

Pete