Timing belt not staying seated

[mrman114]

Hi all,

I've been changing my timing belt (Clio II 2004, D4F) and have a bit of a concern regarding the seating of the newly installed belt.

After rotating the crankshaft 6 times as per the Haynes manual, I noticed the timing belt tends to want to travel off the crankshaft and cam sprockets. Before cranking, the belt is flush with the sprockets, and after 6 turns it protudes out by about 5mm.

I will say that the method I've been using to crank the engine is different to what's stated in the Haynes manual. Instead of fitting the crankshaft pulley and directly turning it, I put the car into 5th gear and turn the FR wheel hub with a socket wrench.

Is this something I should be worried about? I may be wrong, but I would assume the issue will correct itself once the crankshaft pulley is fitted. If this isn't normal, could it be that something (crankshaft sprocket, belt tensioner) isn't well seated?

I'll try and post pics tomorrow when I have another crack at it.

 

[Touring_Rob]

Half torque all the bolts, crank and cam pulleys, tensioner, and idle pulleys - make sure static timing is ok. With the plugs removed turn the engine over several times using the crank pulley bolt or put in gear and use the wheel as you've been doing.

Its likely something is not seated correctly so the belt is walking off. My 182 did this when I changed the belts out the car, with everything fully seated (which you can't do with the cam pulleys easily and still have them freely spin) all was well.

 

[mrman114]

Thanks Rob. Forgot to reply since I had managed to sort out the issue shortly after your response. Hopefully this will help anyone with the same issue as me.

After reinstalling the crankshaft pulley the belt stayed seated after 6 turns. I think without the pulley installed, the crankshaft sprocket had some room to wiggle about. This allowed the timing belt to go walkabouts.

I've since put the engine back together and everything seems to be working after a few test drives.