S40: CAM belt change interval

[80211ac]

Hi All,

My first post.

I have volvo s40 2003 (1.8L) petrol 03 reg. currently the car has around 54.5k miles but the cam belt hasn't been changed since the start. Can you please recommend when this should be changed? This is my first car (bought in 2012), I am just concerned about the belt as its now 11 years old.

Please let me know what you think I should do, change the belt or wait and if there are any other parts that i should be looking at changing around this time interval. Car has been fully serviced every year, sometimes at volvo dealers and sometimes at indies and so no issues with driving.

theres always this tuck tuck noise when the engine is idle but i have heard that its common, its from the front under the bonnet i think its some kind of pully or belt making noise?

thanks,

80211

[pierremcalpine]

Originally Posted by 80211ac

Hi All,

My first post.

I have volvo s40 2003 (1.8L) petrol 03 reg. currently the car has around 54.5k miles but the cam belt hasn't been changed since the start. Can you please recommend when this should be changed? This is my first car (bought in 2012), I am just concerned about the belt as its now 11 years old.

Please let me know what you think I should do, change the belt or wait and if there are any other parts that i should be looking at changing around this time interval. Car has been fully serviced every year, sometimes at volvo dealers and sometimes at indies and so no issues with driving.

theres always this tuck tuck noise when the engine is idle but i have heard that its common, its from the front under the bonnet i think its some kind of pully or belt making noise?

thanks,

80211

Nice, that's some pretty low mileage you got there. Lucky you. You need a belt change based on age of car alone. You probably are already aware of this but having a belt fail on one of these is bad news. I would suggesting skimping on the water pump and waiting until the next change for that one. At this point, I'm thinking that as long as the car has been taken good car off, a straight belt replacement job (including aux belt) is really all you need.

When you approach the 130-150K mark I would strongly consider doing a bunch of things at once if you plan on driving the thing 'til it dies:

1) change the oil trap and associated hoses (not directly related to TB job)
2) change the VVT gear (directly related)
3) change the water pump (directly related)
4) change the cam and crank seals (directly related)

but that is a ways off...

[310den]

Wow.... great mileage. As Pierre posted above, just a cambelt kit and aux belt but do it sooner than later due to age.

[flyingtech55]

According to the Autodata book, the timing belt should be renewed at 80,000 miles or eight years whichever is sooner. I don't know if mine had been changed but someone had renewed the VVT pulley and made a complete mess of the engine and VVT pulley timing. Whether they renewed the belt at the same time I don't know but I suspect they hadn't. The car had done 74.000 miles but was just over thirteen years old when we changed it. I bought the proper timing kit and we did the job properly. We looked at the water pump and saw no reason to change it. However we renewed the idler and tensioner along with the VVT pulley bolt and the stretch bolts on the crankshaft pulley and I think on one of the pulleys.

We also renewed the auxiliary belt.

HTH

TimR

[skyship007]

Originally Posted by 80211ac

Hi All,

My first post.

I have volvo s40 2003 (1.8L) petrol 03 reg. currently the car has around 54.5k miles but the cam belt hasn't been changed since the start. Can you please recommend when this should be changed? This is my first car (bought in 2012), I am just concerned about the belt as its now 11 years old.

Please let me know what you think I should do, change the belt or wait and if there are any other parts that i should be looking at changing around this time interval. Car has been fully serviced every year, sometimes at volvo dealers and sometimes at indies and so no issues with driving.

theres always this tuck tuck noise when the engine is idle but i have heard that its common, its from the front under the bonnet i think its some kind of pully or belt making noise?

thanks,

80211

When you get the cam belt kit and aux belt kit job done, try running it with the aux belt off (Just before the main cam belt job is done) to confirm the noise is an aux belt related system and not the water pump or something main block or cam belt related.
If the noise is from the aux belt, then the tensioner or alternator pulley are the most likely culprits, but try checking the AC and turn the wheel to see if those 2 pumps make the noise worse.

[Austin160]

There would be another piece of sensible logic regarding the noise - carried out BEFORE you change the cambelt (which it is agreed is overdue for a change) and that is to remove the auxiliary belt and check for noise after this. This will point you to auxiliary belt driven issues if any.
Re. Cambelt:- you must now make the very important decision (often overlooked in favour of cheaper quote) of what make of parts you are going to use/ insist on being used. Choose either Volvo via. discount prices available on this forum, or Gates. Personally, I would most certainly replace the idlers as well, but leave the water pump until inspected at the time the job is being done. I would think you will find it to be serviceable. Don't be tempted to use an aftermarket replacement pump thinking that it is an insurance - it most probably will not be!

[v40alex]

The water pump will be fine at that low mileage, there's people on here with original ones still going at 150K+. Keep your original one, it's better than the one even Volvo would replace it with now.