Another timing belt job...

[elan]

It was my turn to do this job this weekend. I found her timing belt being in a very good condition though it's was 4k past due at 109kmiles ( 95 year with kevlar belt) so Idid not want to take a chance.

Anyways I want to thank Sinan for very his helpful review at zerothread?id=198122.

I just want to add some step that I think is quite crucial and did not found tha t Sinan has explained it well.

Adjusting the tension of the belt:

When you have the belt and the auto tensioner in place 1st make sure that the distance between the tensioner unit and the arm of the tensioner pulley is approx 4mm do not tighten the tensioner bolts much yet. Put the crankshaft pulley in place and rotate it clockwise just enough for the belt to become tight on and in between all sprockets the rest of the belt will go to the space between the left exhaust camshaft pulley and the crankshaft pulley that is exactly where the tensioner is located. Then push on the tensioner pulley arm with a force of approx 60N as the manual says and tighten the blots and the nut. After they are tightened try to press on the belt in between all pulleys and sprockets one by one and make sure that the average deviation is no more than ~5-6 millimeters. Only after this is performed you can remove the retention bold slowly. make sure that the distance in between the arm and the body of the tentioner is not more than 6 mm.

The step with turning the pulley I think is crucial as it allows to tense the belt everywhere except the area where the tensioner is located as the sprockets will tend to resist. So then whenever the tensioner is pushed this area is tensioned as well. So when the retention bolt is removed the tensioner arm is located within the working area. Otherwise the tensioner will have to compensate the loose belt and will go out of the working area thus the belt can be not tensioned well.

These are my 2c into the bucket.

all my thanks to Sinan again.