Changing the timing belt on 850 T5

[lil_me]

Going to order a belt tomorrow, not done a Volvo one before.

Is there anything else worth changing at the same time ?

Anything I should know before tackling it ?

Thanks in advance

M

[lance]

Tensioners, but I leave that to my independent

[lil_me]

Thanks

Was considering ringing an independant as looks like a swine to get at, but done several on other cars, and TBH only usually go to a garage for MOT and tyre fitting, too tight :) . Will ring round and see.

[firestorm]

hi, it's not that hard to do, if you have done others before, you should'nt have too much of a problem, check for play in the waterpump whilst the cambelt is off, there is quite alot off room, once you have the expansion tank out of the way

should be a picture of cambelt and pulley's for a 1998 t5, let me know the year of yours, and i'll post the right one for you

[Murphy]

I only paid £70 to have that done by my specialist. Have you considered asking your local mechanic ?

[lil_me]

Not yet, but that's not that bad a price actually. Pete was a mechanic but mainly Subaru and other performance cars, a lot of Jap stuff etc (shop mainly dealt with Subarus and rally cars), haddn't touched a Volvo before we got ours :B_steerin .

That looks easier than the BMW one we did a while back actually :) Managed to do the gearbox and clutch on ours without a problem (apart from getting the wrong boxes) and they reckon that is a pig of a job.

Ours is a 1994 T5.

[splatt]

Am sure I saw something on here recently about the belt, the new one is shorter and has to be routed through the pulleys differently....Can I find it?...Nope!

Anyone?...

[lil_me]

Just rang an independant £90+VAT. Think I'll price up the belts first. He said hydraulic tensioner so shouldn't require changing.

[Fatspice]

I think Autodata give about 1.6 hrs for remove and install, so it can't be too bad.

[dreadly]

Just rang an independant £90+VAT. Think I'll price up the belts first. He said hydraulic tensioner so shouldn't require changing.

It's not the tensioner that's the problem, it's the bearings on it! - They can collapse, causing the timing to shift etc... BANG!

[pookie]

If you buy a cam belt kit you get all the pulleys to go with the belt. Two in this case. Makes sense because in a lot of cases it's the bearings in the pulleys that collapse causing the belt to jump. Gates do a kit for this application.

Pookie

[nobananas]

The cam-belt on an 850 is actually very easy. As pointed out, replace the tensioner pulley and any idler pulleys that it runs around. The only thing to be carefull of is that when you remove the hydraulic tensioner you must compress the shaft back into the tensioner body. To do this use a bench vice or similar and compress it very, very slowly. You will also need a suitably strong pin to slid through the hole once it's compressed to prevent it from extending when you refit it, I usually use a small drill bit for this purpose.