seat leon TDi cambelt change Advice needed please

The oil in a diesel goes black pretty quickly. It was due to be changed again at 143k, so that's your first priority.

The Haynes Golf Mk.4 manuals cover everything you need on the engine side, and most other things too. I think you need the blue one, 4169.

For a cambelt change you'll need the special tools to lock the camshaft, crank pulley and the diesel distribution pump pulley (if you're not PD). Consider changing the water pump while you're in there - the cost of the pump is peanuts compared to the time it takes to get to it.

I've shamelessly stolen most of this from mattytdi on the uk-mkivs board:


The Mk.1 Leon is based on the Mk.4 Golf platform, the A4 platform shared with the Mk.2 Toledo, Audi A3 and TT, Bora and Skoda Octavia.


GREEN Book Haynes Number 3727 - April 1998 - 2000 (R to X registration) 4-cyl Petrol & Diesel

Petrol

1.4 DOHC (55kW) - AHW, AKQ, APE, AXP

1.6 SOHC (74kW) - AEH, AKL, APF

1.6 DOHC (77kW) - ATN, AUS

1.8 DOHC (92kW) - AGN

1.8T DOHC (110kW) - AGU, AQA, ARZ

2.0 SOHC (85kW) - APK, AQY

Diesel

1.9 (50kW) - AGP AQM

1.9T (66kW) - AGR, ALH

1.9T (81kW) - AHF, ASV

Does NOT cover 4-Motion (4x4) or Cabriolet
Does NOT cover 2.3 litre V5 engine
Does NOT cover 1.9 litre 'PD' engine



BLUE Book Haynes Number 4169 - 2001 - 2003 (X to 53 registration) 4-cyl Petrol & Diesel

Petrol

1.4 DOHC (55kW) - AHW, AXP, BCA

1.6 SOHC (74kW) - AEH, AKL

1.6 SOHC (75kW) - AVU, BFQ

1.6 DOHC (77kW) - AZD, BCB

1.8T DOHC (110kW) - AUM

1.8T DOHC (132kW) - AUQ

2.0 SOHC (85kW) - APK, AQY, AZU, AZJ

Diesel

1.9 (50kW) - AGP, AQM

1.9T (66kW) - AGR, ALH

1.9T (74kW) - ATD, AXR

1.9T (81kW) - AHF, ASV

1.9T (85kW) - AJM, AUY

1.9T (96kW) - ASZ

1.9T (110kW) - ARL

Does NOT cover 2.3 litre V5, or 2.8 or 3.2 litre V6 petrol engines.
Does NOT cover V5, 4-Motion, R32 or Cabriolet models, or new Golf range introduced January 2004




Everything in these manuals is relevant apart from some of the bodywork and interior details.

Oil on a diesel will instantly go black as soon as you change it m8... If there's no proof I'd get it change for piece of mind and I'm not being funny but if your asking questions how to change a Cambelt then I suspect your not competent in the 1st place and if its wrong you scrap the engine so I'd be getting a vag specialist to do it....and also get the water pump changed sorry I'm not being harsh but its a fact, if you ain't sure don't take the risk

sealover1 said:

Hi 20vtmk1 cheers for the advice,

yeh i hear what your saying and would luv to put the car in a garage and have them do it, But and a big but I just cant aford what a garage would charge me to do the job,

have done cambelts before tho like i said not in a while or on a seat but its still just nuts n bolts and at some point even the guy in the garage was a beginner

just need to get myself a workshop Manuel and as much advise as i can get from owners who have done it on seats before

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I've seen that many that have gone wrong and ended up scraping the engine n valves m8... And the bill would be 5x as much as the belt change where's your location m8

They aren't a bad job m8 more tricky than anythink I'd try googling it etc

sealover1 wrote

erm no idea which engine mine is how do i find out if its a PD or not? all I know is its an 2004 1900cc TDi

There's a couple of ways. If you know the engine is still original, look at the back of the car and see how many of the TDI letters are red.

TDI 90 - all silver
TDI 110 - red I
TDI 130 - red DI
TDI 150 - all red

TDI 90 and 110 engines are distributor pump (VE) engines, 130 and 150 are PD.

In addition, there is a build data sticker in the service book and on the boot floor, under the carpet, or sometimes in the spare wheel well. It will look something like this.



(That's the sticker for my old Toledo TDI 110 in its service book)

In section 2, the letters ASV - - - EGS are the codes for the engine and gearbox. The engines you are most likely to find in a Leon Mk.1 are: -


LS5N is the paint code (S5N is Imperial Blue), and the list of three-character codes shows what options the car was fitted with when it left the factory.


do you know the name of the special tools needed to get the belt off is called?


We had a brief discussion on this subject a while ago.

http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=342317

Depending on your engine, one of the two sets linked to in that thread will do the job.

sorry this is my 1st seat so pretty much new to working on them

The Leon is a Mk.4 Golf underneath, so it shares the same strengths and weaknesses.

As long as you have some means of supporting the engine the cambelt change is within the capabilities of most DIY mechanics, provided plenty of care is taken. The offside engine mount has to come off, which is why the engine needs support. Seat use a bar supported off the suspension top mounts.

Crank, cam and injection pump must be fully immobilised or you'll foul up the camshaft timing and/or the injection pump timing. Not for the faint-hearted.

You should change the tensioner at the same time as the belt.

There is a known weakness in the water pump, which afflicts some engines, where the plastic impeller blades can snap off or lose grip on the shaft. For this reason most people will change the pump to one with metal blades whenever the cambelt is changed, unless they know it has already been done. I think that by 2004 the dodgy pumps were no longer being fitted, but the pump is so cheap it's worth changing while you're in there.

Ah, you have a tuning box. They are not as well regarded as a remap, since they work by falsifying readings to the ECU, wheras a remap changes the way the car responds to power demands, adding power by pushing the engine closer to it's limits.

Red DI would indicate a TDI 130, yes. Do you have white dial faces, as that is usually associated with the TDI 130 as well.

In the PD you only have to immobilise the crankshaft and camshaft pulleys, but the cam pulley needs to be held very precisely. The PD injectors are driven by cams so there's a lot more spring force on the camshaft when you take off the cambelt.

Get a new water pump as well m8..... Hope all goes well

If you use the old water pump and it fails it will cause repeat job, maybe worse = more money to spend.

The original water pump will have plastic impellers and they are known to break up and cause problems. For the sake of £25-£30 you can get a new pump with metal impellers - no extra cost or hassle to have it changed at the same time as the cambelt kit so it's a no-brainer really.

I'm looking to get the cambelt kit + waterpump changed on my 2004 TDI PD 130 in the next year at an independent garage in the Peterborough area - can anyone recommend a gargae or give an indea on the likely cost?

I can do if you like, & im located in Leicester

sealover1, it's difficult to tell before you've got the pump out whether it's plastic or metal impeller, and what condition the blades are in.

I believe it's possible to feel the impeller blades through the thermostat housing once the thermostat has been removed, but it's a difficult location to get to and would need a periscope or a fibre-optic inspection camera to actually see the blades through there.

The thermostat is located just behind the pump, but low down on the front of the block, with all the ancilliaries (alternator, power steering pump, air cooling compressor) in the way.

Muttley said:

sealover1, it's difficult to tell before you've got the pump out whether it's plastic or metal impeller, and what condition the blades are in.

I believe it's possible to feel the impeller blades through the thermostat housing once the thermostat has been removed, but it's a difficult location to get to and would need a periscope or a fibre-optic inspection camera to actually see the blades through there.

The thermostat is located just behind the pump, but low down on the front of the block, with all the ancilliaries (alternator, power steering pump, air cooling compressor) in the way.

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Yes you can feel it muttley through the thermostat hole you can even put a little pressure on the blades to see if its gone brittle and will poss be able to break it..