Hi Miri,

Yes, I'm sorry I didn't reply having seen your post but I've never had a V6 so I didn't think I was best qualified to give you an answer.

However, I have replaced timing belts before on the 2.5TD. On one occasion I demonstrated it in front of several other XM owners when we met a coupe of years ago. It took me 50minutes in total. The belt is wound around the engine mounting which means the engine mounting must be disconencted. This is the hardest part of the job. Fitting the belt is relatively straightforward.

The V6 timing belt looks to be located in roughly the same position as the 2.5TD so my guess is that the job would be very similar.

I hope that gives you enough confidence to try yourself.

Cheers

noz

Noz, I am surprised, to say the least, that you suppose the timing belt change on the V6 to be similar to the job on the DK5. The change on the Diesel is a piece of cake. The V6 ESJ94 is an entirely different story, for one reason that it is a DOHC. The job requires a whole array of special tools not found in the average home mechanic's kit. Citroen also use an electronic gadget to set the tension of the belt.

Here an image of the DK5 engine:



and one of the V6 ES9J4:



Let's not forget the diesel has one (1) single camshaft, driving 3 valves per cylinder on a 4 cylinder engine.
By contrast the ES9J4 has four (4) overhead camshafts, driving 4 valves per cylinder, which makes it the V6-24 valve engine.

Hi Jan,

Are you making your assessment from actually having changed a timing belt on a V6 yourself or is your judgment solely based on the length of the belt and the number of sprockets and pulleys? The number of valves and cylinders is completely irrelevant to difficulty or otherwise of changing the belt. The number of camshafts is of course relevant but only in as much as the number of sprockets to set.

One reason that makes the DK5 easy is that the sprockets are split with the inner part indexed to the cam/pump and the outer part indexed to the belt. The difference is accommodated by the fact that the two halves of the sprocket rotate with respect to one another. To set the DK5 timing it is a simple case of pegging the inner halves of the sprockets to the cam and the pump repectively. When these pegs and the one on the flywheel are in place, the timing is perfect. The belt is then placed around the crank, pump and cam sprockets in an anticlockwise direction finally taking up any slack with the adjuster. The adjuster comes after the last sprocket so that no adjustment of the effective belt length takes place between the crank and the pump/cam. Once the belt is on, the two halves of each sprocket are tightened thus preserving the timing set by the pegs. The pegs themselves have no magic. I use the shaft of the appropriately sized twist drill. I have no special peg sets.
The manual recommends the use of the 'proper' belt tensioning tool for the DK5 as well as the V6 as used by Citroen. As with most of these 'gizmos' they are used because of the uneducated nature of the modern mechanic. It is used to make up for the fact that he has no judgement skills to assess the tightness or otherwise of the fitted belt and needs to use a jig which has engineered out the need for any skill. I use the technique which has been around since the dawn of man. Twist the longest section of belt between the thumb and forefinger. It should not travel as much as 90Deg. I have never used a 'belt tightness' guage in any car and I have probably changed dozens of timing belts in my lifetime. As I said above, the only hard part about the DK5 is the fact that the belt is wound around the engine mounting. The V6 looks no different. If it weren't for that the job would take 30 minutes.

Looking at the sprockets on the V6 they look identical to the DK5 i.e. split. In which case the timing setting procedure will be exactly the same as the DK5. The fact that there are 4 sprockets in stead of 2 is immaterial. Again the adjuster is on the slack side of the belt as with the DK5. The number of idler pulleys is also inconsequential.

Now, if you want to argue that the average XM owner has no DIY skills and cannot assess the tightness of a belt then I have no way of judging that other than their competency displayed in their postings. With no skills to set the belt tension, you do need a gizmo, so unless you have one, you cannot do the job. However, if through these pages someone imparts the skill to you by describing the procedure then there is no reason why you cannot attempt to do the job.

I recently witnessed the changing of a timing belt on the 5 cylinder engine fitted to a Volvo 740 which is the same engine tha is in my fathers Audi A6. In this case the sprockets are not split and there are two adjusters, one on the 'live' side of the belt and one one the 'slck' side. In which case the timing is affected by the relative settings of the two adjusters. For this engine you need a diesel timing light to enable the belt to be tensioned whilst running. Only this way can the timing be set. Compared to the setting of the DK5, the Volvo/Audi engine is a dinosaur.

cheers

noz

If you fancy doing a V6 timing belt Noz, the one on my V6 XM that I imported from Malaysia needs doing!

David.

Hi David,

No problem. Get yourself a belt and name your weekend. You could photograph each stage and we can turn it into a Self Help file. (This weekend is out but the rest are free)

Cheers

noz

Dear Noz,

My posting was not intended to irritate you, but to clarify that the job at hand for a novice, instead of someone like you, for the uneducated modern mechanic, who seems to belong to the mechanics you presume to be the ones employed by Citroen, is not as easy as you make it seem. Using twist drills, shaved off bolts or other innovative utensils from the garage and the kitchen, instead of properly machined tools can do the job, I have no doubt. I know because I have had to improvise as an engineer for years.

My 'assessment' is not based on having accomplished the feat myself, but on observation and experience in working on other engines and machinery.

BTW I am familiar with the 5 cylinder Audi engine. My dad owned more than one of these cars and my brother and I worked on them.

In conclusion I wish to say, having owned and worked on (maybe not as many as you) hundreds of cars and their engines, that the jobs at hand are so easy once you know how to, but not to the novice. Competency in a first posting is never apparent. Thank you for explaining why the DK5 is easy. But I still disagree with the generalization 'similar'. No offense.