E30 Zone

Im due to do the cambelt on my 91 316i i(purley for piece of mind)i also heard that you should also change the water pump at the same time is this correct or an urban myth advice would be nice thankyou.

Yep, change it while your in there as the fan and pully have to come off to do the cambelt anyway so your already most of the way there, they can be siezed in and need some persuasion with a hammer and chizle, or they can vertually fall out, it's pot luck on that one.

It means your into a full coolant change too but thats no bad thing, some on here recomend to change the coolant every year (including me).


Once that little lot is done you will deffinatly have piece of mind, im doing the same to mine next month (after payday)

Thanks, this was something I didn't know about, but I'll do with the next belt change. On the old E30.net forums, it seemed to be a common thing to change the tensioner with the belt, especially if you don't know how old the tensioner is. Good idea, or waste of time?

Dunno, I left the tensioner when I did mine, as well as the rollers and water pump, but I guess the best way to do it is to pull the cover off and have a look around if it's convenient.......

I hear the tensioner isn't that bad but those rollers tend to break apart after a good bit of use, I was lucky because I think they had been replaced previously. Water pump is a good thing to change, but I had to get everything done over the weekend and hadn't got a new one (would have taken too long to wait for it), but it still works fine........apparently it tends to sieze/break up etc., especially if you've removed and refitted.

watch the viscous fan when you take it off, I've somehow wrecked mine, probably through storing it face down....another zoner will recommend how to store them (I think they have to be upright)

Its not so much the tensioner but the rollers on the M40 are recommended every time the cambelt is changed because as above they can break up .