Someone knowledgeable on Cambelt changes?

[RooDBwoY]

I'm about to change the cambelt on my 1998 Peugeot 306 GTi-6 as I'm slightly concerned that it's gonna give up the ghost fairly soon.

Apparently they're notorious for either the tension-roller or water-pump seizing and taking the cam-belt and rest of the engine with them. Some have been known to break on as little milegae as 30k, and with it being on 30k on its current belt (and the dealer NOT having changed the tenioner or roller with it originally) i'm gonna play safe.

Does anyone know anything about the cambelt change on these motors?

Or point in the direction of a generic tutorial/guide with photos etc?

Never tried one before, but i'm assuming it can't be that hard so long as i lock the cams and crank properly and replace belt in exactlty the same manner?

[lukeb]

Can't help directly, but I came across the 306 GTi-6 Owners Club forums when looking for one last year, and I recall seeing a howto for the cam belt.

www.306gti6.com/forum/forum.php

[Mr Whippy]

Yeah, it's not a bad job, but you need to get it done. 30k isn't that bad in itself, it's the age as well.

My car was on 43k @ 5yrs old, and Pug say 72k, but no time. The belt looked a bit iffy when I took it off, and the water pump had a light leak and stress fractures on the impeller.

I took mine to Pug, cost £350 ish all in for water pump, roller, tensioner and cambelt. Remember if you do the water pump you need to drain the radiator too!


I don't think you can go wrong if you lock the crank and cams, tippex mark the old cambelt and sprockets, then replace with the new one, by lining the belts up (new and old) and transferring the marks.

Then pop it on and get them lined up. The top cam wheels can be slackened and moved a bit while tensioning the belt, while the cam shafts stay locked.

Also, the bottom marking on the bottom pulley wheel you line up can get out of sync for timing. There is a rubber bit that fails and the two parts can go out of phase, so don't rely on that for timing.

There are two types as well, 136 tooth and 137 tooth belt, one with a manual tensioner, and another spring loaded I believe. My 2000 W was the earlier 136 tooth belt, so I guess your will be too!?


If you've done cambelts before it's not too hard. There is a sheet telling you the process over at the gti6 forums too. If your not confident don't do it, if you are, then it's no more difficult than any other car.

Just lock everything up, cams at the top with pins, crank via the gearbox flywheel teeth, and then mark the belt, and I can't see you going far wrong. Tension using the good old 90 degree twist test... turn it by hand a good 5 strokes to make sure it's running without any problems.

Plenty of info on the forums anyway. Good luck.

Dave

[RooDBwoY]

seems i've seen your nickname somewhere else before :P

i've bought the newer 137-tooth belt and auto-tensioner.

gonna do it next weekend with a mate who's done a few cam-belts.

i'll let you know how it goes.

doing water pump too, and aux belt

[mattiselvis]

Mr Whippy said:

I took mine to Pug, cost £350 ish all in for water pump, roller, tensioner and cambelt. Remember if you do the water pump you need to drain the radiator too!

Where did you get this done? Pug quoted me £650 for the same work, so I'm looking for a good independent...

[pdmotors]

Hi, having my own garage/workshop i've done a few of these. They are not too bad a job. As someone said earlier, if you lock the crank and cams up you cant go wrong, and for the reason you mentioned it is preferable to fit a kit rather than just a belt. I also change the water pump as a matter of course as if you are only doing moderate milage it's going to be 5 years before you need the belt off again, and the pumps are also known for baking the heads if they are not running at optimum efficiency under hard driving. £350 isn't a bad price if it was from a dealer as it would cost you £300 from me, sheerly due to the price of the bits. (not plugging for work )
Regards, Paul.

P.S Don't get tempted to start the engine with the crank aux pulley loose/off just to make sure its going to start before you build it up. The main crank pulley is usually on a taper fit, not a keyway!! This means it requires the crank bolt to be tight, or the crank will spin and the cams wont. Then car is poorly!

[mattiselvis]

pdmotors said:

£350 isn't a bad price if it was from a dealer as it would cost you £300 from me, sheerly due to the price of the bits. (not plugging for work )

Sadly a bit far, although I may be on a project in Halifax in the next couple of weeks...