Cambelt advice

[Paloma751]

Hi all. I collect my new (old) car a week on Friday.

Its an S60 D5 with just 58k on the clock.

I have spoken to the owner (one owner from new) and asked about the Cambelt.

He tells me it has never been replaced due to the low miles. Should I get it done given that it is fifteen years old, or is it OK until it’s got more miles on it?

Thanks in advance.

[davebb]

Hi you need to do it, and the aux belt and all the tensioner pulleys
Volvo say max 10 years, even if not done the miles
about £200 in parts
Dave

[Paloma751]

Originally Posted by davebb

Hi you need to do it, and the aux belt and all the tensioner pulleys
Volvo say max 10 years, even if not done the miles
about £200 in parts
Dave

What kind of job is it? Happy to do head gaskets and suchlike, but poor access pi$$es me right off!!

Is it fairly accessible or horrible??

Also, do I need to do water pump like on many other engines?

[davebb]

The crank pulley bolt is done up to 300nm, so you need to undo and torque
to that,
you need a crank pulley holding tool,
its not to bad of a job if you have the tools,
have a look on youtube,
Dave

[T5R92011]

The waterpumps are supposed to last a very long time, however no harm in doing it while you're there.

Timing belt is ok on these.

You may want a longer handled wrench or extension bar for slackening off the aux tensioner though.

This chap is a Volvo master tec. He's doing the belt on the petrol engine but its basically the same proceedure on the D5 but with a single cam sprocket instead.

+ YouTube Video

[cheshired5]

Originally Posted by Paloma751

He tells me it has never been replaced due to the low miles.

Just like oil changes, there's either a mileage or a time limit and the timing belt interval is 96k miles or 10 years, whichever arrives sooner.
There's nothing in the manual that says, "don't bother because it's low miles".

If the timing belt is 5 years overdue, what else has he not bothered to maintain?

[oragex]

Don't touch the water pump, not only is hard to access, but these last at least 200K miles - the ones that fail are the cheap replacements

Get a good belt kit with tensioner and pulley. Continental is the best, Gates may be good as well. On petrol engines, we don't remove the crank pulley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tljxoQFDe0

Be sure to order the correct kit, there might have been two types of tensioners (at least on petrol engines). To set the tensioner and for more tips, look up on Youtube

Without removing the crank pulley, certainly one of the easier engines to replace a belt, if you are already used with HG surely no worries

I'd take the time to pull the injectors and put some anti-seize on the threads, just for the future

[ASt85]

Make sure the auxiliary belt and tensioner and idler are changed too.

[Paloma751]

Originally Posted by cheshired5

Just like oil changes, there's either a mileage or a time limit and the timing belt interval is 96k miles or 10 years, whichever arrives sooner.
There's nothing in the manual that says, "don't bother because it's low miles".

If the timing belt is 5 years overdue, what else has he not bothered to maintain?

Fair point, but having seen the stack of receipts and all the dealer stamps, my answer is probably not much tbh.

I had a chat with him about the cambelt the other day, and he was told by a Volvo main dealer tech that he personally wouldn’t bother...

For me it’s a no-brainer if its 10 years. No point in spoiling the whole car for the sake of a couple of hundred quid.

[XC90Mk1]

Originally Posted by Paloma751

Fair point, but having seen the stack of receipts and all the dealer stamps, my answer is probably not much tbh.

I had a chat with him about the cambelt the other day, and he was told by a Volvo main dealer tech that he personally wouldn’t bother...

For me it’s a no-brainer if its 10 years. No point in spoiling the whole car for the sake of a couple of hundred quid.

I did the cambelt in my 2012 xc90 d5 following the guide that si robb did in YouTube on what I believe was a 2003 ish d5.

It was not hard, certainly one of the easiest I had done.

My water pump at 80k was as new, I replaced but would not again.