Basic Cambelt Change Guide - Mk2.5 Focus 1.6 TDCi

[TomsFocus]

I couldn't find a guide for this on here so thought I'd take a few pictures of the process to help anyone else that may want to do it.  All 1.6TDCi/HDi are more or less the same when it comes to the belt kit but the parts removed for access to the belt may be different for different models.  Ford recommend 10 years or 100k miles so the facelift Focus' will be coming up to their 10 years now if they haven't covered the mileage.

First buy the parts you need - Cambelt kit, auxilliary belt, waterpump, coolant (6 litre capacity, may get away with 5 litres), crank pulley bolt.  I also bought a set of timing pins for under a tenner on eBay...but they didn't fit so make sure you've got some drill bits or similar to lock the pulleys!

I chose the Dayco kit as that is original to PSA.  I checked on removal of old parts, original Focus belt was Dayco, tensioner and idler were INA and waterpump was Pierburg.  Up to you which brand to go with.

Loosen the OSF wheel nuts.  Jack up the car and support it on axle stands.  Remove the undertray (7x T30 torx).  Remove the OSF wheel and arch liner (6x T30 torx).  Remove the engine cover (2x10mm nuts).

 

Remove the auxiliary belt.  This is done by pulling the sprung tensioner towards you.  I prefer to use a 15mm socket rather than a spanner so there's no risk of slipping off.  Ideally pin the tensioner in the open position.  Simply slip the belt off the pulleys.

Next remove the crankshaft pulley bolt (18mm).  This can be done with an impact wrench but mine wasn't that tight, I managed it pretty easily with just a normal 3/4" ratchet.  If doing it manually you will need to fit a flywheel locking tool.  It is the largest of the timing pins and slots in just above the DPF downpipe.  Once the bolt is removed the pulley should then easily lift away.  

Now support the engine with a trolley jack and block of wood so you can remove the top engine mount.  Haynes suggests removing the coolant reservoir for this but you can just pop one of the pipes off, saves risking damage to the reservoir.  You will need to remove the 2x T20 screws holding the brake fluid reservoir to the scuttle and just move it out of the way.  The 2x mount nuts are 18mm, 2x bolts are 15mm.

Next, remove the top and bottom cambelt covers (9x 7mm screws) and the engine mounting mount (bit with studs pictured above 4x 15mm).  Different guides recommend different orders for removing these so do whatever you find easiest, there are some wiring loom clips on the covers which need popping off.  The covers go over the mount but I found I needed to loosen the covers then remove the mount before I could wiggle the covers away completely.  It is tight but I did it without unplugging or removing anything else.  At this point, Haynes suggests removing the wipers and scuttle to get the top cambelt cover off, this seems to be totally unnecessary! You will also need to remove the crankshaft position sensor and the belt guide opposite the sensor - no pictures but they are right by the crank pulley.  With the covers and engine mount mount removed you should end up with something like this.

Refit the crankshaft pulley bolt and remove the flywheel locking pin.  Turn the engine by hand until the camshaft, crankshaft and fuel pump line up with their timing holes.  Be aware the cam and crank can line up without the fuel pump...I spent several minutes wondering what I'd done wrong there!  Just need to turn it a few more rotations until they all line up.  Then place your timing pins or drill bits to lock the pulleys in place.  Once the pulleys are locked and you're happy to continue with the job, it's a good time to drain the coolant.  There is a coolant drain plug at the bottom passenger side of the radiator, need a large flat screwdriver to undo it.

This is the point of no return...  Loosen the cambelt tensioner (13mm bolt).  Remove the old belt.  Remove the cambelt idler (15mm nut).  Fully remove the tensioner. 

Remove the old waterpump (7x 8mm bolts), break the seal and expect some coolant to emerge from behind there.  Clean the cavity and sealing area.

Fit the new waterpump and gasket making sure to evenly tighten the bolts(10Nm).  You may chose to use some gasket sealer as belt and braces.

Fit the new cambelt idler (35Nm).  Loosely fit the new sprung tensioner taking care not to pull the pin.

Fit the new belt, making sure it's tight on the right hand side and that all the slack is around the tensioner.  Remember only the waterpump can move at this point so if there's too much slack on one of the other pulleys, lift the belt and push it over a tooth.  When you're happy with it, use a 6mm allan key to turn the tensioner until the belt is under the correct tension on the waterpump side.  Then fully tighten the tensioner bolt (25Nm). 

Now remove all the locking pins and turn the engine over by hand 10 revolutions...this quickly gets tiring but it's worth doing lol!  After 10 revolutions the pulleys should all line up with the timing marks again, double check by fitting the pins.  Then make sure to remove the pins before going any further.  At this point I tightened the radiator drain screw and refilled the cooling system to make sure there were no leaks from the waterpump.  

Now refit the crank sensor, the crank guide (10Nm), the engine mounting mount (55Nm) and the cambelt covers (5Nm...even I didn't bother torqueing those lol).  The covers fit over the mount so that needs to be in place before the final cover tightening, but I found it easiest to loosely fit the covers first.  

Refit the top engine mount (80Nm nuts, 90Nm bolts).  Refit the coolant reservoir pipe.  Refit the brake fluid reservoir to the scuttle.  Lower the trolley jack and remove from under the engine.

Fit the flywheel locking tool as before.  Refit the crankshaft pulley with a new bolt.  Tighten to 30Nm + 180 degrees.  Top tip, if you don't have an angle gauge, make a mark on the bolt head (this one already has one) and a mark/scratch on the pulley directly opposite.  Then tighten the bolt until the marks meet.  This is a bit awkward on the floor, especially as its easy to slip off the bolt and mash your hand on many things.  Now remove the flywheel locking tool.

Now fit the new auxiliary belt and reset the sprung tensioner.

Now for the worst part...starting the engine for the first time after the belt change! Hopefully it should just fire up immediately.  If not, check the flywheel pin is out and all plugs are properly plugged in etc.  If it starts and then locks do not try to restart it, there's a timing issue so you need to remove the covers and see what's happened.  If it starts but whines like a supercharger you've over-tensioned it.

Assuming it started fine and is running well, let it warm up with the coolant cap off to purge the system of air...ok, this impossible with a 1.6TDCi in cool temps lol.  But check for leaks and any odd noises.  I had to take mine for a run to get it warm enough as it just never gets there at idle otherwise.  Make sure to take some coolant with you as it'll need topping up when the thermostat opens at around 83c.  

Now refit the wheel arch liner, undertray, engine cover and wheel.  Write the date and mileage of the belt change in your service book.  The Dayco kit also came with a sticker to fill in and place near the belt in the engine bay to let future owners know of the change if the service book gets lost.

And finally, take it for a test drive! 

 

 

 

[iantt]

well done, good guide. easy arnt they.

[TomsFocus]

Thanks, yeah it wasn't difficult at all tbh!   

[Albert27]

Tom, thanks for posting this guide - it's a job that needs doing on mine in the next 8,000 miles or so and I've been wondering whether or not I've got the skills yet to have a go but this has really helped.  I couldn't find a guide other than haynes either so this is brilliant if i do have a crack at it.  Where did you get the crank pulley bolt?  And how do you turn the engine by hand?  Also I'm yet to prop the car up solely on Axle stands (I always use ramps, or do one wheel at a time if it's brakes again due to  lack of confidence with using them!) so where are the Axle stands exactly placed?  I can't quite work out from the picture, if you have/could get a picture up close that'd help.  Thanks again.

[TomsFocus]

47 minutes ago, Albert27 said:

Tom, thanks for posting this guide - it's a job that needs doing on mine in the next 8,000 miles or so and I've been wondering whether or not I've got the skills yet to have a go but this has really helped.  I couldn't find a guide other than haynes either so this is brilliant if i do have a crack at it.  Where did you get the crank pulley bolt?  And how do you turn the engine by hand?  Also I'm yet to prop the car up solely on Axle stands (I always use ramps, or do one wheel at a time if it's brakes again due to  lack of confidence with using them!) so where are the Axle stands exactly placed?  I can't quite work out from the picture, if you have/could get a picture up close that'd help.  Thanks again.

No problem.  I'm not a huge fan of the Haynes guides tbh, they seem to over-complicate things and the black and white pictures often aren't very clear. 

The crank pulley bolt is made by Corteco and can be bought on eBay for about £9 delivered or from EuroCarParts/Carparts4Less for about half that, not sure what their delivery costs for small items as I bought the coolant there at the same time.  https://www.carparts4less.co.uk/search/353770080 You can also buy the bolt from your local Ford dealer but I don't know the price or part number I'm afraid.

To turn the engine by hand you just turn the crank pulley bolt with a ratchet as if you were tightening the bolt.  You've got to overcome the compression of the engine to do this though so it does take a bit of effort to get through all 10 rotations, I had to take a quick break half way lol.

I don't have a close up of axle stand placement unfortunately.  Ideally they should be placed on the sill jacking points after jacking up using the subframe but that isn't easy on the Focus due to it's width, low front end and the undertray all getting in the way.  If you look at the rear corners of the subframe, there are a couple of large bolts holding it to the chassis, I place the stands under these bolts and have not had any issues so far.  Once it's on the stands, just give the car a push/pull by hand (I tend to go for the top of the wing area) to make sure it's steady and not going to slip at all.  

Edit - these bolts

[Albert27]

12 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

Now remove all the locking pins and turn the engine over by hand 10 revolutions...this quickly gets tiring but it's worth doing lol!  After 10 revolutions the pulleys should all line up with the timing marks again, double check by fitting the pins.  Then make sure to remove the pins before going any further

Is the idea of turning the engine by hand to check that you've got the timing right without doing any damage?  So if you were out somewhere you'd know without damaging valves etc....  

I've always wondered why they don't do colour photos - it would be much clearer!

Thanks for the info. How long did the job take you?  Do you  remember what size drill bits?  I only have a 6mm one in my took box

[TomsFocus]

Yeah that's right.  If you've got the timing badly wrong (impossible if pinned properly) then the engine will lock and won't turn any further.  No damage will be caused if this is done by hand, valves can be snapped or bent if this happens on the starter motor.

If you've got the belt one tooth out or not tensioned enough, the engine would probably still run without damage but not very well.  The timing pins won't line up if this is the case though so it's worth putting the effort in to check it before refitting the covers.

I have done cambelts before on other cars but this was the first time on a Focus or a 1.6tdci engine.  Took about 4 hours from jacking the car up to setting it back down.  I wasn't rushing at all and could probably knock nearly an hour off it if I was doing it again and had limited time.

 

[Albert27]

54 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Yeah that's right.  If you've got the timing badly wrong (impossible if pinned properly) then the engine will lock and won't turn any further.  No damage will be caused if this is done by hand, valves can be snapped or bent if this happens on the starter motor.

If you've got the belt one tooth out or not tensioned enough, the engine would probably still run without damage but not very well.  The timing pins won't line up if this is the case though so it's worth putting the effort in to check it before refitting the covers.

I have done cambelts before on other cars but this was the first time on a Focus or a 1.6tdci engine.  Took about 4 hours from jacking the car up to setting it back down.  I wasn't rushing at all and could probably knock nearly an hour off it if I was doing it again and had limited time.

 

I think i get it mate!  I would probably at least triple that time for myself but slow and steady wins the race  

[Albert27]

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

You've got to overcome the compression of the engine to do this though so it does take a bit of effort to get through all 10 rotations

One thing I've just thought of;  How would i know when I've turned it 1 rotation or 10 rotations?  

Also,  When it comes to tensioning the belt, is there a precise tension to be at or is it just a judgement from look/feel of the belt?

[TomsFocus]

Honestly it really doesn't take that long, but I did wait until I had a full free day just in case anything went wrong lol.   

The belt tension is a bit of guesswork really, I spent about 20 minutes worrying about whether I'd got the tension right.  I was taught in college (many years ago!) that belts should be tensioned to the point that you can twist them 90 degrees along the longest belt run.  But on this engine there isn't a long enough run to do that.  I just made a mental note of how the old belt felt before taking it off and tried to get the same as that.  The tensioner has a spring in it so should keep the correct tension if the belt stretches slightly.

If you look at the crank pulley, it has just one circular hole for the timing pin and the rest are elongated.  It will start at the top as that's where the timing pin in, just watch that timing hole as it goes round, every time it passes the top again that's one rotation.  If you lose count it doesn't really matter, just keep going until all the pins line up.

[iantt]

the tensioner has a pointer that should line up in a window(metal cut out) when turning tensioner anticlockwise. then tighten tensioner bolt. takes the guesswork out.

 

 

[TomsFocus]

18 minutes ago, iantt said:

the tensioner has a pointer that should line up in a window(metal cut out) when turning tensioner clockwise. then tighten tensioner bolt. takes the guesswork out.

Oh no...  I may have done that wrong then.  Only used manual tensioners before.   Reckon I should re-check it? 

 

[TomsFocus]

@iantt Could I access the tensioner by removing just the arch liner, crank pulley and lower cambelt cover?  If so, how would I go about resetting the spring to try again?

[isetta]

when I did this on my 1.6tdci fiesta I had a lot of trouble getting the tensioner right. when i did the nut up tight it would turn the tensioner making the tension wrong. It has a small hex hole for putting an allen key in the try to hold it but that hex hole got chewed up because it was thin soft metal whereas the original tensioner had thicker stronger metal where the hex hole is.

So I did not put the top cam belt cover back on so I could keep an eye on the belt. A couple of days later it was making a strange noise on tickover and when making this noise I could see the belt vibrating . I took the bottom cover off and I came to the conclusion that the tensioner was a bit tight so slackened it off slightly. I no longer have the car, my brother has it, and it has done 40k mile since then and seems fine (I did put the top timing belt cover back on some time later).

I did not get any timing pins, I used drill bits of the correct size on all of the pulleys.  For locking the flywheel I got a big bolt which was slightly too big for the hole and then ground it down slightly on my bench grinder. It's handy this engine has a hole for locking the flywheel like this as many engines types do not have this hole.

I know there is a hole for timing the diesel pump pulley and I did use it but I don't understand why this pulley needs to be timed up. It's just a pump that keeps constant high pressure diesel going to the injectors. The injectors open at the correct time by the electrical signal to the individual injectors, so why does the pump pulley need timing? can someone explain ?

[Phil21185]

this is a nice guide which gives me a bit more confidence to tackle a belt change - anyone know how tricky this is on a mk3?

[iantt]

[mention=59356]iantt[/mention] Could I access the tensioner by removing just the arch liner, crank pulley and lower cambelt cover?  If so, how would I go about resetting the spring to try again?

no idea if you can access it from underneath. you got 3 choices
1 nothing
2 try to accces as you describe
3 pull it apart again to adjust.
you may need a mirror to see the pointer in the window
can you see the pointer on the tensioner you have removed?
chances are if you strip it down to inspect the pointer may be in the right place . lol

[iantt]

to adjust, start off slackened, turn tensioner using allen key anticlockwise until the pointer lines up in the window on the left. tighten bolt to 23nm without pointer moving

[TomsFocus]

Yeah I can see how the pointer works now, didn't realise it was significant at the time, thought it was just a locking thing for easier assembly like with the aux tensioner.  

I've done over 60 miles in the car since the belt change so I'm not whether to check it or not.  Of course the irony is, the point of doing the belt was for peace of mind that won't break through age...but now I'm worrying about the tension instead!

I did at least turn it the correct way noting the arrow so it probably is about right.

 

As for locking the fuel pump, I'm not sure why either, wondered the same thing myself.  I've done a few belts on 2.0 8v HDis (with manual tensioners lol!) and never had to lock the pump on those.  I did wonder if it's to do with the 'suction' pump part as the DV6 doesn't use a tank lift pump but that's just a guess.

[isetta]

Further to my message above,  when I redid the tension on mine I did it from underneath, removing crankshaft pulley and lower cover. I did have to use a mirror to see the tensioner pointer (I have a dentist type mirror on a telescopic stick (like a selfie stick). Mine was a Fiesta Mk6.5, I do know how the space compares to your Focus.

After this I sawed the cam belt cover in half so if I needed to do again I would not need to remove the crankshaft pulley and only remove the part of the lower cover which was not hindered by the crankshaft pulley.  Luckily I did not need to do it again. I think it would have been quite difficult if I needed to do it again from underneath with the crankshaft pulley in place.

Another reason for sawing the cover in half was that in theory it would mean I could also access the water pump at a later date without removing the crankshaft pulley, although I accept it would have been tricky, did not have to , luckily

[TomsFocus]

I did think about dremelling a hole in the cover lol, but half the reason for doing the belt was to make for an easier sale in a few months.  Hacking up the covers would put me off if I was buying.  I also don't have a mirror that isn't attached to the car lol.  I think I'll just leave it for now tbh.  It's done another 40 or so miles today and seems ok, definitely no whining or belt flap so far.

There was a horrendous pop noise about a mile from home but it sounded as if it was behind me...I was under tree cover at the time and only thing I can think is an acorn or conker dropped from a tree and hit the roof...not sure what the chances of that are but I can't find anything and didn't see anything in the rear view mirror either.  Very odd...

[Albert27]

2 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

I was under tree cover at the time and only thing I can think is an acorn or conker dropped from a tree and hit the roof

I've had this happen when parked and it was such a loud noise.... it was an acorn that fell out of a tree I concluded. Either that or the local squirrel population had taken offence at my parking and were chucking them!  Had you run any over on the previous few miles?

[Albert27]

On 08/10/2017 at 4:52 PM, isetta said:

I did not get any timing pins, I used drill bits of the correct size on all of the pulleys.

I don't suppose you can remember what size drill bits?

[isetta]

10 hours ago, Albert27 said:

I don't suppose you can remember what size drill bits?

Hi, sorry, I do not recall the sizes

[TomsFocus]

11 hours ago, Albert27 said:

I've had this happen when parked and it was such a loud noise.... it was an acorn that fell out of a tree I concluded. Either that or the local squirrel population had taken offence at my parking and were chucking them!  Had you run any over on the previous few miles?

Haha, no, I gave the car it's first wash for months after the belt change, even walked an extra 5 mins rather than drive into a dusty gravel car park, so definitely haven't taken out any animals!   I could understand if I was parked, but the chances of it dropping and hitting a car moving at about 50mph must be fairly slim, can't think of any other possibility though! 

11 hours ago, Albert27 said:

I don't suppose you can remember what size drill bits?

Flywheel lock is 12mm, but you won't fit a whole drill bit in so would have to either cut one down or use a bolt instead.

Cam sprocket is 7mm.

Crank pulley is 5mm.

Fuel pump is meant to be 5mm but isn't, this was even wrong on the Ford guide so not sure when the pump sprocket was changed, 6mm was a bit loose but doable, I reckon it was 6.5 or 7mm but didn't have one of those in what's left of my drill bit set.

 

 

[Albert27]

6 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

Haha, no, I gave the car it's first wash for months after the belt change, even walked an extra 5 mins rather than drive into a dusty gravel car park, so definitely haven't taken out any animals!   I could understand if I was parked, but the chances of it dropping and hitting a car moving at about 50mph must be fairly slim, can't think of any other possibility though! 

Flywheel lock is 12mm, but you won't fit a whole drill bit in so would have to either cut one down or use a bolt instead.

Cam sprocket is 7mm.

Crank pulley is 5mm.

Fuel pump is meant to be 5mm but isn't, this was even wrong on the Ford guide so not sure when the pump sprocket was changed, 6mm was a bit loose but doable, I reckon it was 6.5 or 7mm but didn't have one of those in what's left of my drill bit set.

 

 

Cheers for that.  Just one thing occurred to me coming back to rotating the engine by hand and forgive me if this is on the stupid scale of questions;  But when rotating the engine by hand is there any chance it could start?