V reg V40 timing belt

[NaughtyV40]

Originally Posted by druid

Mine restarted 40. so your good for a bit, lol.

That makes me feel a bit better, so I'm still young? lol

OK here's some pics of the car, seeing as I'm slightly dim and didn't need to make this thread in the first place, I'll use it to show you my V40. I am actually really happy with it, its soooooo smooth to drive its like a big soft comfortable couch, not surprised old people trundle around at 40mph everywhere in these!

The car, has some rust on the front wings and rear arches which I'm assuming are common rust spots?






Plenty of history with it! (No specific order)











The circled bit says timing belt kit, this was done in 2008 and it hasn't done many miles since then!


Random interior shots, took me a while to figure out some buttons, like the dash dimmer toggle









I don't think the lighter switch works, the ignition was on but the plugs LED wasn't lighting up


The belt that's in a bad way, assuming this is the auxiliary belt?

[canis]

Quite a nice looking motor-car, better than ours. Yes, they all rust in those places, and it's what makes me not post any pics of our car, hehe.

I know exactly what you mean about the ride, it's just so comfy! I've been borrowing my father-in-laws Kia Picanto while ours has been off the road, and it's hateful. It's only done 32000 miles, and the interior is all scratched to pieces, the radio buttons are all scratched and losing their decals, everything about it is just so basic. There's nothing gentle about it, it's like driving a dump-truck. Took ours for a sneaking spin around a local car-park today and have come to the conclusion it's ready for MOT now. Fingers crossed. But the first thing I noticed about driving it, was the comfort level. It's not slow, it'll behave very lively if you like, but it all feels so effortless. And it's why we love it so much! :-)

[NaughtyV40]

Originally Posted by canis

Quite a nice looking motor-car, better than ours. Yes, they all rust in those places, and it's what makes me not post any pics of our car, hehe.

I know exactly what you mean about the ride, it's just so comfy! I've been borrowing my father-in-laws Kia Picanto while ours has been off the road, and it's hateful. It's only done 32000 miles, and the interior is all scratched to pieces, the radio buttons are all scratched and losing their decals, everything about it is just so basic. There's nothing gentle about it, it's like driving a dump-truck. Took ours for a sneaking spin around a local car-park today and have come to the conclusion it's ready for MOT now. Fingers crossed. But the first thing I noticed about driving it, was the comfort level. It's not slow, it'll behave very lively if you like, but it all feels so effortless. And it's why we love it so much! :-)

Thanks! She's not a bad old boat for her age! She does have a couple age related scuffs and scrapes (OS wing mirror OS front bumper) but generally she looks in great condition!

A couple of questions I do have, the service light comes on but goes off after about 5 minutes, is it telling me it needs a service or is this normal?

As it appears its the auxiliary belt needs changing how vital is this?

The timing belt kit was done in 2008 as pictured, the car has a little over 73,000 on it will the belt still need changing? A bit too skint to do it now as it cost me over £700 to insure it even with 4 years no claims and passed my test in 2008 (3 points for speeding in a goods vehicle doesn't help)

Is it normal to start wanting to eat Worthers Originals now I own a Volvo?

Also, could one of the admin team change the title of the thread just adding 'Pictures in thread' or something along them lines?

[druid]

Service light reset:-
Hold odometer button, turn key to position 2, wait for it..... When service light starts to flash then let go of odometer button

but

I'm 99 percent sure that the phase 1 cars can't have the service light reset without going to volvo or using specific vida / dice software

Lazy copy and paste from other posts on here. Wurthers are NOT compulsory however cleaning, polishing and general tarting up are
Nice car mate!

[canis]

Originally Posted by NaughtyV40

service light comes on but goes off after about 5 minutes, is it telling me it needs a service or is this normal?

I think it's supposed to count miles to tell the customer their shiny new V40 needs to go back to the dealer for it's regular service, who upon servicing the car would reset it to remind the driver next time. Can't be certain, ours has been exactly like you describe for six years.

Originally Posted by NaughtyV40

As it appears its the auxiliary belt needs changing how vital is this?

It's not vital in as much as it powers all the ancilliary stuff: Power steering, A/C, and most importantly, charges the battery. If it snaps it's not fatal (although I've read on here about it catching the timing-belt in the process, which is fatal) if you're near to home, but bear in mind that if you drive it it will have no power steering (really heavy, even heavier than non-power steered cars) and you'll be running on battery power alone, so your miles are really limited (turn everything off, put the lights to side-lights). If you're a mile from home, you can make it - maybe more, but it really needs changing now if it's that bad. And it's not too hard to do, once you've got over the frustration of access, which is really limited.

Originally Posted by NaughtyV40

The timing belt kit was done in 2008 as pictured, the car has a little over 73,000 on it will the belt still need changing?

I doubt anybody would be willing to make that kind of prediction, it's too important and too catastrophic, and I know I wouldn't want it on my concionce. If it makes you feel any better, ours has done 183,000 miles, and we've not changed it in the six years we've owned it. I did buy another, but they sent the wrong one, so even now it's still running on the old one but I do feel like I'm pushing my luck now and want to change it as soon as I can. It's a huge risk to take. If it did snap, you'd be looking at replacing broken valves, valve springs, perhaps tappets, getting bits of valves out of the pistons, so that'll mean a head gasket change as well, assuming the pistons aren't damaged by the bits of valves that fall in and get rammed into them, broken spark plugs from collisions with bits of broken valve, falling into the piston and doing further damage - basically, a complete strip down to at least the cylinder block. The oil could'nt be trusted either, so you'd need to clean all that out and replace it. You'd end up buying another engine from a scrapper most likely. Or scrapping the car altogether.

Originally Posted by NaughtyV40

Is it normal to start wanting to eat Worthers Originals now I own a Volvo?

No. Although I have developed a taste for whiskey.

[martin93]

It could be worse. I am 23 and am on my second Volvo V40, my other car is an MGB GT project. Worther's are lovely, and so are dogs and tweed blankets. I don't own a hat though... so I'm not part of the parcel-shelf hat brigade.

Car looks really nice by the way! Excellent purchase. I love the things, so much car for the money.

[DavidMarron]

if it was me, I'd replace a timing belt after 8 years.

It isn't the milage, it's age so it might be fine, might not.
if you think the car is worth £500 (fixed) I'd do it.

Just replaced mine at a cost of £250 as i intend to keep the car

[NaughtyV40]

Originally Posted by druid

Service light reset:-
Hold odometer button, turn key to position 2, wait for it..... When service light starts to flash then let go of odometer button

but

I'm 99 percent sure that the phase 1 cars can't have the service light reset without going to volvo or using specific vida / dice software

Lazy copy and paste from other posts on here. Wurthers are NOT compulsory however cleaning, polishing and general tarting up are
Nice car mate!

I did that and it worked, previously the light would go off when the temp gauge got to half way so I suspect there may be an issue somewhere, like lambda sensor or something as I've used approx 1/4 of a tank in 53 miles, I have opened her up down some straights which wont have helped, to see what she can do (not a lot tbh its a bit too heavy for a 1.6 but the handling and ride makes up for it)

Originally Posted by canis

I think it's supposed to count miles to tell the customer their shiny new V40 needs to go back to the dealer for it's regular service, who upon servicing the car would reset it to remind the driver next time. Can't be certain, ours has been exactly like you describe for six years.



It's not vital in as much as it powers all the ancilliary stuff: Power steering, A/C, and most importantly, charges the battery. If it snaps it's not fatal (although I've read on here about it catching the timing-belt in the process, which is fatal) if you're near to home, but bear in mind that if you drive it it will have no power steering (really heavy, even heavier than non-power steered cars) and you'll be running on battery power alone, so your miles are really limited (turn everything off, put the lights to side-lights). If you're a mile from home, you can make it - maybe more, but it really needs changing now if it's that bad. And it's not too hard to do, once you've got over the frustration of access, which is really limited.

I'm pretty skint after buying/insuring and taxing it (insurance was around £730 I've only just got 4 years no claims as I kept scrapping/selling cars before the year was up) but I will get that looked at as soon as I can afford to get it done!

Originally Posted by canis

basically, a complete strip down to at least the cylinder block. The oil could'nt be trusted either, so you'd need to clean all that out and replace it. You'd end up buying another engine from a scrapper most likely. Or scrapping the car altogether.

Been there done that, cant be arsed with that again lol

Originally Posted by canis

No. Although I have developed a taste for whiskey.

Not a bad thing, I'm half Scottish so often have a tipple when visiting family over the border!

Originally Posted by martin93

It could be worse. I am 23 and am on my second Volvo V40, my other car is an MGB GT project. Worther's are lovely, and so are dogs and tweed blankets. I don't own a hat though... so I'm not part of the parcel-shelf hat brigade.

Car looks really nice by the way! Excellent purchase. I love the things, so much car for the money.

Ohh MGB GT nice! My uncle had an MGB many years ago that was stolen and never found sadly, I've had two Nova's and neither of them had stupid body kits and massive exhausts, one was a road car the other was being built up with a 1.6 16v high compression pistons steel conrods head work fast road cams and the usual brakes/suspension etc upgrades, was a MK2 SR which sadly I had to sell I'm still not over that Nova!

Originally Posted by DavidMarron

if it was me, I'd replace a timing belt after 8 years.

It isn't the milage, it's age so it might be fine, might not.
if you think the car is worth £500 (fixed) I'd do it.

Just replaced mine at a cost of £250 as i intend to keep the car

Yeah I think this car is worth keeping, low mileage for its age, it DOES need rear brakes (discs & pads, not sure if they're all discs? easier to change than drums thankfully) and I think it'll need some handbrake cable adjustment maybe a new one or maybe that's down to the rear brakes needing changing!

[FastBricks]

I did this job last week when changing the VVT pulley on my 2003 v40. Bought what I needed in terms of tools and learned how accurate you really have to be with the markings and the belt. Also you have to be able to buy or build a cam locking tool and understand the tensioner pulley and without having the right tools and a lot of patience and time to keep the car up and remove parts to get access to the belt it is actually hard for a first timer and I would not do it again. I used a YouTube guy called RobertDIY and watched his videos on rebuilding the head on a V70 and aligning the cams. I was surprised to find out that Top Dead Centre of piston 1 does not need to align with the timing marks of the cams or crank.

I don't know if this is true but my TDC would be about a quarter turn of the crankshaft forward after passing the timing Mark on the engine. Is this wrong?

After putting it all back together I feel like the car runs quietly and the VVT brrr brrrr beer noise has gone but it has no power and the revs need to be really high for it to start shifting. I think I also have an exhaust backpressure or vacuum leak and would love to know of a good Volvo mechanic in the London area as I am terrified after what halfords put me through when installing my last cat converter

[NaughtyV40]

I once had a similar issue after adjusting the timing on a 1.2 8v nova I had (was easy on that though just turned the distributor and it adjusted the cam) but it did exactly what you're describing so I'd say your timing is out.

I could do the timing on this with a friend but he's too busy working and racing at the moment.