I’m going to have to do the cambelt on my 93 1.6i. The car has 88K on the clock and by the state of the plugs, oil etc has not been serviced for ages. Already put on new leads, plugs, air filter etc
I read in a car mag that you can change the cambelt by doing the following.
With a stanley knife cut the cambelt all the way round leaving a half width cambelt Then slacken the tensioner and slide the new cambelt half way on up to the other half of the one you have cut in half. Then cut off the old one leaving you to just slide the rest of the new one on. Retighten the tensioner.
All sounds a bit too easy. I’d be interested in all your views.
If you’re going to change the cambelt you’d be wise to change the waterpump and tensioner / idler pulleys anyway while it’s in pieces (esp. as the cambelt kit normally includes these pieces and a waterpump is only about £30). The cambelt is very very easy to setup anyway, you’ve only got to line up 3 markings. Also helps if you mark the top pulleys and count the number of teeth between the marks on the old belt to make sure you get the same number on the new belt.
Trying to chop the old belt in half sounds like much more hassle than just lining up the 3 pulleys to me, especially as you’ll still have to remove the crank pulley to get the new belt on no matter how you do it.
However you do it spend an hour before making yourself a crank locking tool from a flat piece of steel - it makes the job soooooo much more pleasant with much less possibility for injury to yourself or your vehicle.
This is said to be for a short-nose 91 model, but a similar shape works fine on a 92 onwards model:
This one is made from a couple of bits, I found a single flat plate easier to use.
“You don’t need to remove the bottom pulley on a 1.6, certainly mine wasn’t disturbed when the belt was changed”
You do if you have the later big-nose crankshaft (1992 onwards I believe) - there’s a large flat retaining collar that prevents the belt sliding off, and it’s held in place by the crank bolt.
Have you ever tried to cut a cambelt lengthways? Try it on an old one first! You could also nick the teeth on the pulleys with a knife. As said previously far easier to line the pulleys up or spot the old belt and pulleys with tippex and count the teeth.
Regards, Geoff Peace.
Thanks for the correction and additional info Jim, I was refering to early short nose cranks, one of the reasons for failure of the bottom pulley is the incorrect tightening of the main retaining bolt. This needs to be accurately torqued up. The point being that there wouldn’t be so many failures if the bottom pulley was left well alone at cam belt change time.
It is recommended that the water pump be changed at the same time as the cam belt as they only cost about £30 or so.
From MX5PARTS, the part costs £49.96 for a genuine Mazda one and £27.55 for one by an unknown manufacturer.The following quote is from MX5PARTS reviews.
Be warned this pump has a plastic impeller not a metal one. Although it’s very tough plastic and will withstand the heat, the cold might crack it as it has done to Rover and Vauxhall cars. Next time I’d definitely pay the extra for the OEM pump.
Editors Note: A plastic impeller is generally regarded as preferable to a tin one as it will not rot out !
The question is what did most owners fit and did they have any problems with the cheaper unknown version?
This method assums your old cam belt was installed properly - you could be a tooth out and have a car that is sort of OK to drive, but when you put the new belt on why not just make sure you put it on right? No need to copy someone else’s work when you can’t really be sure it’s right.
