Drive belts change

[BenH]

Hi Folks, just thought I'd let you know about my drive belts replacement.

The car has only done just over 36,000 miles, and I was pretty sure the belts had never been changed in 8 years, nearly double the recommended service interval, so playing on the safe side, I bought all new genuine belts from Rimmer Bros and had my mechanic friend change them.

It turns out that the primary cam belt had been changed at some point, as it was the only non-genuine one fitted. All the others (steering belt, alternator belt and rear cam belt) were original fitment. The rear cam belt looked OK but the steering belt and alternator belt were cracking a bit, and are now 'spares'. :)

The interesting thing was the cam belt tensioner. Apparently Rover do not specify this in the service schedule according to Rimmer Bros, but I decided to replace it anyway. The one that came off, with only 36,000 miles on it was quite badly worn, very rough to turn, and had considerable play.

So I would say if you are having cam belts changed, for the sake of £27, get a new tensioner on there as well!

Incidentally, all the belts and tensioner came to £146 ish from Rimmer Bros, including P&P and VAT.

Cheers!
Ben

[Adam]

Not a bad price. Its on my list for my next big service, along with getting rid of the annoying cam gasket leak.

Good point about the tensioner too!! :clap2:

[andymlm]

Yeah Just had to do mine too, fitted a new radiator and the water pump sprung a leak afterwards.

As I needed the car for the weekend I was at the mercy of my parts supplier who supplied good 'gates' make belts but the pump was QH which I dont really trust, It was pretty straight forward and am glad I bought a pulley locking tool recently.....

Got it all back together last night with the only issue of not knowing the right tension for the belt as the rover manual I had described using a spring which I did not have and didnt come with the tensioner, based on years of experience I guessed it! and all is well............