I have just bought a cambelt kit from Renault here in Mexico, cost me 1730 pesos, which is equivalent to 80 quid. I should by 20 and sell them in the UK, haha.
Come the aux belt kit, they tell me they don't do a kit, it's all separate parts, the belt was 12 quid, but the tensioner was 185 quid and I can't remember for the idler pulley, they only had the belt in stock. This suggests that they only change the belt and don't bother with the rest.
The two blanking caps for the other end of the cams were 11 quid for both.
Just in case you are wondering the cam belt kit is the same as you get in the UK, the box says made in Canada, although the two idler pulleys are from Germany (the bearings are BRS) and the belt just says EU (Gates PowerGrip 40951 x 27). The tensioner says Canada on the spring housing, although the bearing says Korea.
Now to the questions.
I have the cam locking tool (Sealey), but not the pulley locking tool for the other end. My question is, how necessary is this second tool (the MOT 1590), because if you need it, it suggests that the belts vary slightly in length, why would the new belt not just fit on in exactly the same spot as the old one? The dealers here don't sell this tool, but I can get one whilst I'm in the UK next month for £56. If it's not necessary I won't bother.
The other thing is that although the car is now 5 years old, it only has just under 20,000 miles on the clock. Do I really need to replace the aux belt tensioner and pulley, I wouldn't have thought these would not be affected by age the way a rubber belt would?
Come the aux belt kit, they tell me they don't do a kit, it's all separate parts, the belt was 12 quid, but the tensioner was 185 quid and I can't remember for the idler pulley, they only had the belt in stock. This suggests that they only change the belt and don't bother with the rest.
The two blanking caps for the other end of the cams were 11 quid for both.
Just in case you are wondering the cam belt kit is the same as you get in the UK, the box says made in Canada, although the two idler pulleys are from Germany (the bearings are BRS) and the belt just says EU (Gates PowerGrip 40951 x 27). The tensioner says Canada on the spring housing, although the bearing says Korea.
Now to the questions.
I have the cam locking tool (Sealey), but not the pulley locking tool for the other end. My question is, how necessary is this second tool (the MOT 1590), because if you need it, it suggests that the belts vary slightly in length, why would the new belt not just fit on in exactly the same spot as the old one? The dealers here don't sell this tool, but I can get one whilst I'm in the UK next month for £56. If it's not necessary I won't bother.
The other thing is that although the car is now 5 years old, it only has just under 20,000 miles on the clock. Do I really need to replace the aux belt tensioner and pulley, I wouldn't have thought these would not be affected by age the way a rubber belt would?
