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[Jan Suhr]

I'm at the moment doing the bastard job of replacing the thermostat on one of my V6 cars and I can see that there are some black dust and fuzz from the cam belt I guess.
Is this normal? Or would it be urgent to replace the belt before anything really bad happens.  I haven't seen this fuzz on other V6's  I've changed the belt on.

Belt was changed by former owner at about 30000 km ago, he let a shop do it for him. So it has about half of its life left.


Thanks


Jan

[dave the builder]

If there is any doubt ,I'd remove the covers and look, and by the time you've done that, you may as well change it .
some garages just replace the belt ,not the rollers , some just tick the book and do nothing 

[Shackeng]

Sadly, certainly in the UK, such jobs are often given to pimply youths as a training job, so it’s a lottery if it is done properly. 

[Doctor Gollum]

Easier to check than hope

Cheaper too...

[dave the builder]

Easier to check than hope

Cheaper too...

depends how lucky you are....
which is why I always check 

[Jan Suhr]

Since I'm already halfway there I'll better do it now.

Better safe than sorry...

thanks

[Doctor Gollum]

 

At least you will know for certain that it has been done and done right

[Jan Suhr]

At least you will know for certain that it has been done and done right

    Exactly, it has just turned 200000km so it is a lot left in her.

[Doctor Gollum]

Barely run in

[Jan Suhr]

It was really bad,  I'm lucky I discovered this in time

[dave the builder]

is the spacer missing from behind the middle idler pulley ?
glad you caught it before it went bang 

[polilara]

I had once something similar after having changed the whole kit. The belt seems for me to be a bit behind from its right position. In my case the "tightener" was not direct but slightly bent and guided the belt to back. I had that dust everywhere.

[Jan Suhr]

I had once something similar after having changed the whole kit. The belt seems for me to be a bit behind from its right position. In my case the "tightener" was not direct but slightly bent and guided the belt to back. I had that dust everywhere.

Could very well be like that, if you look at the middle wheel it looks like the belt is touching the flange there and that explains the tearing on the backside of the belt.

[dave the builder]

I wonder if there are some defective kits 
there was another recent reported near failure a few weeks back ,can't remember who
is the make of belt and rollers readable Jan Suhr ?

[polilara]

https://www.omegaowners.com/forum/index.php?topic=140623.45

This was my old case, belt was in bad location after having changed new kit as I do it after each 60 000 km. Belt was too much back. So I did that time the job twice. Still silent after 30 000 km.

[Jan Suhr]

I wonder if there are some defective kits 
there was another recent reported near failure a few weeks back ,can't remember who
is the make of belt and rollers readable Jan Suhr ?

I can check and report back when I do the change in a few days. Have just ordered the parts and expect them on Thursday.

[dave the builder]

I wonder if there are some defective kits 
there was another recent reported near failure a few weeks back ,can't remember who
is the make of belt and rollers readable Jan Suhr ?

I can check and report back when I do the change in a few days. Have just ordered the parts and expect them on Thursday.

great , thank you
would be helpful to know what went wrong (defective kit,play or stiff bearing etc ) for future reference 

[Enceladus]

is the spacer missing from behind the middle idler pulley ?
glad you caught it before it went bang 

I too was wondering about that.

I also note that the lower idler roller looks like the eccentric adjustable version used on X25XE/X30XE. However this engine is a Y32SE and these did not have the lower eccentric adjustment. Nothing wrong with using the eccentric, arguably it's a better arrangement, provided of course that the tensioner and rollers are correctly adjusted.

It might well be that somebody swapped the tensioner and idler roller from an earlier X30XE kit onto the Y32SE backplate. Again nothing wrong with doing so provided you don't forget the spacer and use the correct bolt.

Looking at the middle idler roller it seems to me possible that it might never have been correctly correctly adjusted. Or it's moved. Perhaps I'm completely wrong but I would have expected the corner directly above the arrow line to be somewhere around 9 o'clock, depending on wear. It looks to be around 6 o'clock.

So we maybe have a missing spacer washer and incorrect adjustment. Makes me wonder if the person who did this had the proper locking kit or understood how to use it?

And since you asked the question. Any decent kit for these engines will use SKF or INA bearings. Contitech, Gates, SKF kits are all widely availabale and good quality. A number of members simply buy two of these AC Delco kits. This obsolete kit doesn't include the lower idler roller so you scavenge one from the tensioner/idler backplate in the 2nd kit and ditch the remaining unwanted parts. In the UK it works out less than half the cost of a full kit. And one kit is still less than the cost of a separate lower idler on it's own.

[Jan Suhr]

Hello, I got the parts today, a few days late but now I can fix this.

It looks like they have put in the wrong parts. This is a X26SE of the late ones and that is the belt kit I ordered. The parts that was on the car is apparently wrong. It is a SKF kit so nothing wrong there if it had been the correct one. The tensioners didn't have any tension in them and the cams was a few mm of position, a bit ahead. It was a hassle to get the locks in place when it was this much off.

Now it will be fine with new correct parts.

[Enceladus]

I suspect that instead of swapping the tensioner roller and upper idler roller onto the correct back-plate for the engine, somebody just put the entire earlier back-plate assembly on.

Please post a picture of the lower idler roller that came in your new kit? And did it come with a spacer washer?

[Jan Suhr]

I think that they just ordered the wrong kit.

Yes the new idler came with a washer.

[JamesV6CDX]

From memory the v late V6 use a “6b” backplate, but ultimately you should be able to see if the backplate is right or not by how it aligns with the rear cambelt cover.

I’ve seen the dust issues scores of times, including on cars that I’ve set up bang on correct, and changed again 40k later.

Just clean it all up, fit a new cambelt kit, triple check it’s set up correctly, and forget it

[Jan Suhr]

From memory the v late V6 use a “6b” backplate, but ultimately you should be able to see if the backplate is right or not by how it aligns with the rear cambelt cover.

I’ve seen the dust issues scores of times, including on cars that I’ve set up bang on correct, and changed again 40k later.

Just clean it all up, fit a new cambelt kit, triple check it’s set up correctly, and forget it

Yes it is the 6B kit, now it is alright and aligns perfectly.

I'll keep an eye on the dust situation to be sure.