For those wondering about Diesel Timing belt change. Landrover seems to have changed their recommendations.

For pre 2012 vehicles on 15,000 service intervals, the interval is 150,000 miles or ten years whichever sooner
For post 2012 vehicles on 16,000 mile intervals it used to be 144,000 or 9 years
But it is now changed on the check sheets to 112,000 or 7 years.

Also bear in mind, that as the crankshaft sprocket has built in slack on the keyway to allow cam/crank timing adjustment, marking the belt & just renewing it isn't good enough. As soon as you loosen the bottom pulley the friction is lost & the sprocket moves. You need to lock the crankshaft and camshaft with the timing pins to ensure spot on cam timing.

I know a few people will reply, "I've fitted them, no problems, without doing that". You may have, but your cam timing is out, affecting starting, performance or fuel economy.

regards
Steve

I trick I once heard about:

Gain access to the timing belt but do not slacken or take the old belt off. Lock the pulleys to be safe. Then cut the old belt in the middle with a very sharp blade along its length so that you have two belts side by side. Now slide the outer half off the pulleys . Slide the new belt over the pulleys and push up to the remaining half of the old belt. Cut the old half belt off and slide the new belt all the way home. The idea is that that timing is not lost as the same number of belt teeth remain between the crank and camshaft sprockets on the tension side of the belt at all times.

Never done it and I dont know if the FL2 sprockets will allow the belts to slide on and off. Jules

Easiest cambelt change Ive ever done was on the Peugeot XUD diesels on the 205. IIRC a few common-all-garden M8 bolts simply screwed through the sprockets into pre drilled holes in the engine block locking everything up tight. No chance of mistiming whilst playing around with the tensioner or belt.

I dont know why they have to make cam belt changing so awkward nowadays - with special tools etc when all you need is a bolt to lock the rotating things in place. Jules

SteveNorman wrote:

For those wondering about Diesel Timing belt change. Landrover seems to have changed their recommendations.

For pre 2012 vehicles on 15,000 service intervals, the interval is 150,000 miles or ten years whichever sooner
For post 2012 vehicles on 16,000 mile intervals it used to be 144,000 or 9 years
But it is now changed on the check sheets to 112,000 or 7 years.

Also bear in mind, that as the crankshaft sprocket has built in slack on the keyway to allow cam/crank timing adjustment, marking the belt & just renewing it isn't good enough. As soon as you loosen the bottom pulley the friction is lost & the sprocket moves. You need to lock the crankshaft and camshaft with the timing pins to ensure spot on cam timing.

I know a few people will reply, "I've fitted them, no problems, without doing that". You may have, but your cam timing is out, affecting starting, performance or fuel economy.

regards
Steve

If you are doing the timing belt you would also want to do the water pump, tensioner and idlers at the same time as it is false economy not to do these items. When a belt fails it is not always because the belt has snapped or stripped etc, it can also be down to a tensioner, idler or water pump failing. The Freelander belt isnt all that difficult to do as belts go.

Last edited by dondiddy on 25th Oct 2018 1:02 pm. Edited 1 time in total

^^^ That