Timing belt tension
 

Hi I have an xc90 and my daughter has a 2002 v40 1.9d.
we recently purchased the car so want to change belts and tensioners etc.
according to the information i have I need tools- MB991668 microphone and
MB996048 harmonic tensioner, piece of metal bolted to crank. is this a must. any advice much appreciated.

That's him . no fancy tensioner there. cheers.

Some forum members have managed to make good equivalent tools for doing the cam belt and removing the EGR without splitting it.

This forum has several guides on how to do the belts (Google Volvo forum, cam belt and tensioner), although it's best to try and get a copy of the Volvo program, or ZF(Sachs) document downloads.

It's a fairly difficult job, that will take a good Indy 3 to 5 hours, if they do the job correctly and change the cam belt, tensioner, water pump (If it's a gen OEM Volvo unit, remove and inspect for play or case cracks etc), coolant flush, new thermostat (If not recent or OEM standard), new Aux belt, Aux belt tensioner (They tend to cause trouble after 100K if not replaced and an Aux belt failure at high revs will probably wipe out the cam belt and top end), idler pulley (If worn) and EGR (Clean or replace), in addition to normal service items.
The Gates cam belt kit (Includes a water pump), genuine Conti (Made in Germany only), or even real Volvo parts are all good.

Umm, I presume the microphone belonged to Velvis!

Uh ha. thanks for that will do a search.

this is one of the easiest belts iv ever done to be honest, I use no locking tools at all.

line the bottom end up with the marks, line the top pulley up with its mark, loosen the tensioner and remove the belt.

refit with no slack on the opposite side to the tensioner, use a screwdriver to lever the tensioner and nip up the nut. experience will tell you how tight to make it, if you can twist the belt a little then you should be grand.

turn her over by hand a few times and line your marks back up, if all good then build back up ?:)

good luck

Just a thought, does it need crank pulley off.

yeah mate

Well granted that I've only done the belt on the one car but I'd suggest not using any locking tool is a plan to get a P0015 error a few days later and then spending weeks trying to figure out what you did wrong. If you've got the expertise, background and confidence that you'll be able to line up everything just so, I guess you can try it without tools but man, it's a pain in the #$ to do this job twice so my opinion would be to at least get the cam locking tool specific to this vehicle (the cams get locked from the backside). I would also use the crank locking pin but I'm willing to accept that that part is optional. You don't need a fancy counterhold tool. Just make one yourself or use an impact gun to get the crank bolt back on nice and tight.

As per the previous suggestion, making sure that you've got no slack on the rhs of the belt when you are resetting the tension on the tensioner is super key.

its really not difficult, its a single cam engine with solid cam pulley, ideal for a first attempt at a belt. I would say you timed it up wrong if you got a fault stored or bad running afterwards. Likely didnt turn it over by hand a few times once the new belt was fitted to check your marks lined up again.

Nothing really moves when the belt is removed, the cam pulley may move slightly but its not hard to bring back to the mark, so dont panic.

I usually line the crank up first, then make my own mark on the cam and backing plate. That way you cant go wrong.

Good luck, if you need any help, or get stuck, just ask