Cam Belt Change Tddi Ford Focus

[philp1863]

Hi

I'm not a Mechanic. I have a 2001 ford focus with 90K on the clock. I'm seriously thinking about having a go at doing the cam belt next week (I'm pretty sure that it is still running with the original). I've changed cam belts several times on my previous car (Diesel ford escort over many years...it was a brilliant car.). This looks more complicated, but I've looked at the Haynes manual and it all looks reasonable and I will give myself over a week to do it. The most worrying bit is getting the tension right using the automatic tensioner i.e. getting the pointer between sides of the window. If I take my time and make sure the pointer is inside of this window,,,do you think that I would be unwise to attempt this myself? I want to do this myself a) to save money and b) for the achievement c) my job is going through a quite spell, so I have the time..

I am intending to buy the engine timing tools and the camshaft sprocket locking tool, I think that I have all of the rest of the tools I need. I believe that will cost about 70 quid.

Do You think That I Should not Take the Risk and just get a garage to do THIS? I must admit that if I was to have to replace the tensioner with the mechanical one, (and use yet another special tool) I would have definitely chicken'd out!!!!

I also want to change the auxiliary belt as well. If I was to do it myself, should I buy ford parts or could I buy them online. The cheapest I've seen is a gates kit (cam belt and tensioner) for 35 quid. I've heard gates is good, or would you recommend just going for the Ford parts?

Thanks for reading this...I look forward to any responses.