Bloody cam tensioner bolt!

[johnna]

The damn thing sheared off despite being set to the correct torque, just after I had it all aligned...

So a day job became a weekend job.

To remove the sheared bolt, I centre punched it, drilled in with a centre drill then deepened the hole with a titanium bit.
Once I had the hole, I drove a small torx screwdriver bit into it. It turned!
As the hole in the lug on the head is a blind hole, I fitted a shorter bolt.

Naturally, there was swarf all over , so I had to clean the block with cotton buds and a magnet. Then refitting the belt was an absolute pain!

But I got there in the end so went for a B road drive on the Pennyfine Way. Even with a snapped spring...

[jonbuoy]

Unlucky there mate but atleast you had the knowledge to sort it
Some of the newbie's on here would be desperately posting for help with there car off the road for 2 week's

[Globulator]

The damn thing sheared off despite being set to the correct torque, just after I had it all aligned...

Sorry to hear about that mate. In the past I've found the odd 1/2" torque wrench a bit vicious at the low ranges and chewed up a few small bits until I used 3/8" ones for those jobs, or just did them up by feel.

I was wondering what was the recommended cam belt change interval? - I've got a standard M20 325i motor with 37k on the current belt - any ideas how long to leave it. It gets a good revving every day to at least 5k.. what do you think?

[Templ8e30]

For the low price of a new belt and the high price of repair if it fails I change mine every 20k to be on the safe side.

Always use a quality belt too, either genuine or Bosch or Gates power belt (I worked for Gates in Dumfries for a few weeks and installed a few engine test rigs for them so I know they are excellent quality !). The type you get from a local motor factors are neither cheap nor quality.

Iirc they are supposed to be done every 35/40k anyway.

Cheers,

Iain T