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[sadman43]

  Ive been told by my local garage that my 1995-96 2.5td has a timing chain rather than a belt, is this true as i thought it had a belt.

[Omegatoy]

Ive been told by my local garage that my 1995-96 2.5td has a timing chain rather than a belt, is this true as i thought it had a belt.

definetlt a chain mate so dont let them charge you for a cambelt change!!!

[sadman43]

  cheers i def won`t

[TheBoy]

Actually 2 chains. Got a price list for all the parts, scary. Glad my MV6 has a £90 cambelt kit

[Marks DTM Calib]

Yes, contrary to popular belief, chains don't last forever, they stretch and can even snap (not unusual on BMW power plants but, normally preceded by a tick)

[sadman43]

I`ll listern out for the tick then begin to remorgage my flat luckly i know where to pick up a spare engine.  

[Omegatoy]

Actually 2 chains. Got a price list for all the parts, scary. Glad my MV6 has a £90 cambelt kit

but you only ever have to do the chains once if at all and regular serviceing should ensure the life of the chains unless YOU ARE VERY UNLUCKY!!!

[blue222]

A friend of mine had the chain go on his twin-cam Sierra some years ago. He paid £700 to fix the mess. Silly boy, the car was worth less than that.

[Marks DTM Calib]

Actually 2 chains. Got a price list for all the parts, scary. Glad my MV6 has a £90 cambelt kit

but you only ever have to do the chains once if at all and regular serviceing should ensure the life of the chains unless YOU ARE VERY UNLUCKY!!!

You think what you like....chains stretch no matter how you service it....and eventualy they run either brake or the adjuster runs out of adjustment. Some engines are worse than others (e.g. Rover V8 is very bad for chain stretch)

I personaly like belts, you change them at an interval and you know they are done!

[Martin_1962]

Chains are fine for pushrod lumps, never hear of a chain let go on any 4 cyl.

Mind you I changed the cam chain on my 250 after 20,000 miles

[TheBoy]

Actually 2 chains. Got a price list for all the parts, scary. Glad my MV6 has a £90 cambelt kit

but you only ever have to do the chains once if at all and regular serviceing should ensure the life of the chains unless YOU ARE VERY UNLUCKY!!!

Which obviously with the tractor, I would be  

[Kevin Wood]

It's funny how some car manufacturers seem to alternate between belts and chains with every generation of new engine. They both have their pros and cons and I think the recent resurgence of chain driven engines has been engineered to shift the first few expensive major service items out of the first few years / 100,000 miles of ownership and therefore out of the view of the fleet manager.

Whilst a cam belted engine will die quicker than one with chains, given total neglect, changing a belt is not too bad a job and if you stay on top of it you will have no trouble. Changing chains is a total pain in the backside and, if you're going to be vigilant, they don't last that much longer in comparison to the pain involved in changing them.

The chain runs on cam-in-block engines like V8s and pushrod 4's are much shorter, so it makes me wonder if that's why they are generally trouble-free on that style of engine.

On balance, give me a belt any time.

Kevin

[TheBoy]

In a way, I agree with Omegatoy.  But, with the service intervals increasing, the excess wear on chains will increase as well, so not sure its a good thing unless oil changes kept short.

Not sure what chain life is - 100 - 150k?  Possible works out cheaper, and only need to do once in cars life?

But, chains scare me, belts don't, I'd rather have the belt...

[Kevin Wood]

I think the key is that chains last long enough (and in most cases, unlike belts, there are warning signs when they start to go) that they don't appear on the service schedule any more. Big decrease in apparent TCO.

Of course, you'll present your car for a service one day and they'll say it needs a new chain, and it'll be a lot more expensive than a cam belt change but it's not a service item so you'll put it down to bad luck rather than it being a costly car to service.

Kevin

[Marks DTM Calib]

Chains are fine for pushrod lumps, never hear of a chain let go on any 4 cyl.

Mind you I changed the cam chain on my 250 after 20,000 miles

Realy, I have seen many, even on pushrods (i.e. like the rover V8) and particularly tensioner failure....which on the older lumps usualy wore a hole in the timing case and dumped the oil every where.