318i touring cam-belt advice.

Post Wed Feb 08, 2012 11:00 am

I'm servicing my touring project, it does not have any history. It belonged to a game-keeper and appears to have had a fairly good life. The garage that looked after it has gone out of business a while ago so I can't find out much. It's on 118k and was sitting for a few years so I'm trying to give it as many fresh parts as possible (with-in budget)
my spanner level is ok. sump, suspension and calliper changes in the past.
As the cam-belt age is unknown I have to do it along with water pump while I'm at it.

Any advice for doing a DIY job??

Post Wed Feb 08, 2012 11:39 am

http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/inde ... elt_Change

Always worth a rumage in the wiki!

Post Wed Feb 08, 2012 8:01 pm

Cheers, I did have a quick look on wiki.

It's pretty involved (maybe not for you guys)

Thanks for posting.

Post Thu Feb 09, 2012 7:28 am

savagehenry wrote:Cheers, I did have a quick look on wiki.

It's pretty involved (maybe not for you guys)

Thanks for posting.

The Wiki link is pretty good but falls short in one respect:

It does not mention that the pulley on the cam has a keyed slot which has a few degrees of available adjustment on it.
When you have the special locking tool in place to lock the camshaft in place and while you are tensioning the belt...you need to loosen the Torx bolt on the cam pulley so that the cam can adjust itself slightly relative to the other pulleys. Once you have the belt tension correct, tighten the Torx bolt to 65Nm, remove locking tools and turn motor over by hand a few times and re-check the cam alignment.

Post Thu Feb 09, 2012 9:04 am

Billwill wrote:
savagehenry wrote:Cheers, I did have a quick look on wiki.

It's pretty involved (maybe not for you guys)

Thanks for posting.

The Wiki link is pretty good but falls short in one respect:

It does not mention that the pulley on the cam has a keyed slot which has a few degrees of available adjustment on it.
When you have the special locking tool in place to lock the camshaft in place and while you are tensioning the belt...you need to loosen the Torx bolt on the cam pulley so that the cam can adjust itself slightly relative to the other pulleys. Once you have the belt tension correct, tighten the Torx bolt to 65Nm, remove locking tools and turn motor over by hand a few times and re-check the cam alignment.

An unnecessary complication for simple DIY belt replacement IMHO.
The pulley position was set correctly at the factory with a new belt, and if it hasn't been touched since, should still be correct with a new belt now.
No harm in checking, of course. With a flywheel locking pin in place, a straight edge placed across the flat of the cam should be exactly parallel with the top face of the head.

Post Thu Feb 09, 2012 10:18 am

I have to agree with Billwill - for the few seconds it takes to slacken the torx bolt and retighten it, it's worth doing - you must do it this way if you use the cam locking tool (which is only a tenner now)and the pin to lock the crank - with the cam wheel slightly loose, the tension can be set with the cam staying in the correct position and the cam pulley finding it's natural position. A dab of threadlock on the cam bolt and retorque it, job done.
You can of course do it as Brian says without a camlock - the cam doesn't spring around with the belt off. But you're assuming that the car is on it's factory cambelt and the cam timing is spot on, which it may not be if the local agricultural engineers have had a go in the past.
It's also important to replace the three idler wheels. Tightwads can pick the seals out and finger a bit of LM grease in!

Post Thu Feb 09, 2012 12:32 pm

Be gentle with all the bolts holding the upper timing case on. These suffer from the Alu/steel corrosion problems. I had one bolt come out of the block ok but had attached to the casing which snaped off. Stealers or welder time.

Post Thu Feb 09, 2012 7:46 pm

I might be out of my depth.......

Thanks for the info.

Post Fri Feb 10, 2012 6:53 am

savagehenry wrote:I might be out of my depth.......

Thanks for the info.

As cam belts go the work isn't that difficult, but to do the job properly having acess to the cam locking tools and a tension gauge is advisable.

I didn't have time to do mine myself so I used a BMW specialist in Norwich called Herring and Palmer, just 2 guys operating out of a small lock up but they do decent work. They changed mine, replaced the water pump and thermostat for £230.

Post Fri Feb 10, 2012 10:10 am

stew72 wrote:
savagehenry wrote:I might be out of my depth.......

Thanks for the info.
As cam belts go the work isn't that difficult, but to do the job properly having acess to the cam locking tools and a tension gauge is advisable.

I didn't have time to do mine myself so I used a BMW specialist in Norwich called Herring and Palmer, just 2 guys operating out of a small lock up but they do decent work. They changed mine, replaced the water pump and thermostat for £230.

That's a nice bill......Norwich is only an hour from me. I need to get a quote from a local guy and see if I can tag along to watch the process, I have done a mk2 golf belt but this is very basic in comparison. The guy is called Bix and worked for BMW and was trained by AC in Germany during the e30 era. Including parts that is a good bill though.