Thread: Timing belt Grrrrrr

Originally Posted by rovercare

So you can't be assed putting a new timing belt on, which will likely extend your motors chances of living a long time by ten fold, but happy to thumb around fitting something reduce a bit of oil film inside the intake

Well I fitted my timing belt............


The reason behind me taking my time in doing it was to find some time when if things went wrong I could have enough time to fix it and Im glad I waited.

It wasnt much over due (only a couple of hundred Kms) but the plan originally was to do it on the 300,000km mark with all the other belts, brakes, wheel bearings etc as everything was getting a bit of a worn feeling about it.

Well first things first, getting the fan off turned into a major hassle, the previous person who fitted it (Mech at the dealership I bought it off) had put loctite on it and so I broke my original special fan retaining tool which when it let go broke on of the tags off the pulley hub trying to remove it.

I broke the other side trying to undo it with it jammed up with a lever so I was left with 2 bolts to use and still no movement.

Made a new (tighter fitting) tool, put a little heat into the fan nut and off she came..................3 hrs after starting to pull it apart.

Tried to get a new hub............nope, got to buy the whole cover $480 later I had one coming direct.....still not happy about that but when your stuck, what do you do.

The rest was fairly straight forward except I had a bit of trouble timing the pump, the last time Jamie did it it was hard up against the pulley so I dropped the belt back a notch and then set the pump from there.

Got it all back together and going last night and is all good so far, Im just waiting to find what I left loose as I was going hard the whole day with work and then did that so Im bound to have stuffed something up.

I cleaned out the radiator and cooler fins while I had it out and the amount of mud and crud that came out of it really surprised me as I didnt think that much could have been in there and the radiator still working efficiently.

Well thats that job done and the front wheel bearings, rotors and pads, next is rear rotors and pads (bearings were done recently).

I might just add there that a 300Tdi Radiator is easy to get out (although heavy) if you follow the steps and have the correct tools and it should only take about 15 mins at the most once the system is drained.

Most people on here would know this but Ive tried taking shortcuts here and there and there is no short cuts, just cuts on your hands

I will post a pic of my fan removing tool if no one else can first as mines at work at the moment.

Step 1 - Drop the coolant and dispose of responsibly
Step 2 - Remove the top cover on the fan shroud and the top Radiator and intercooler hoses.
Step 3 - Remove Fan using special tool and 1 1/4" open end spanner ground down to fit in and CAUTION the fan is left hand thread.
Step 4 - Remove Shroud remembering to unclip the heater hose on the bottom of the shroud.
Step 5 - Remove oil cooler lines and expantion tank hose and bottom intercooler hose.
Step 6 - Lift out radiator and intercooler in 1 big piece.


If your going to clean it out I would recomend you use a high flow low pressure hose but if you are planning on using a pressure washer then make sure you aim it straight on to the fins and hold it back about 12" to 18" as to not bend them all over and dont hit the intercooler with the pressure washer as the ally fins will bend.

Refitting is the reversal.