Cambelt Change - 1.6Hdi 120

[citrophile]

How difficult is it to change the cambelt on the 1.6HDI engine?

 

My wife's is coming up to 100k miles and I'm not prepared to pay dealer prices any longer if it is a relatiely straightfoward job.

 

Just changed the turbo on my C5 2.0 HDI so I'm reasonably handy with a spanner!!

 

Rob

 

[paul.h]

The most recent Haynes C3 manual includes the 1.6 hdi, my older copy does not so can only go by the 1.6 hdi in the C5 manual and it does not look too bad. I did the timing belt on our 1.4 petrol C3 and that was easy enough following Haynes although filling with coolant was a bit of effort to get the air out (I also replaced the water pump). It would have taken a full day. When you get the new belt on you have to turn the engine a couple of times with a socket on the crankshaft pulley bolt, on the petrol this was not too much effort but a diesel will be harder due to higher compression and in the C5 manual Haynes says to rotate 10 times.

 

As well as the belt you should replace the tensioner and any pulleys and consider the auxiliary belt and pulleys since this belt will be removed.

 

If you do replace the water pump, Citroen sell the Glysantin G33 coolant recommended for about £5 a litre, it is a blue colour, not clear as the original. According to the BASF website it has a 4 year life. I used this but did not flush all the old stuff out and later noticed what looks like grease in the coolant tank - there are no signs of head gasket failure so I did suspect it may have been from the coolants being slightly different. Citroen also seem to sell another coolant but this was not offerred at the time and it could be the long life stuff.

 

As an aside, there is a C4 post on a turbo failure. There were no warnings before, during or after and the poster is asking about this. From your experience perhaps you may have a look