Hi Guys,
for the past few months I've had an oil leak on my '97 2.5D that has had me mystified and my driveway destroyed, couldn't find the source of it until...

The replaced at 90k timing belt (now 125k) was on it's way out, and it also turned out to be the wrong belt, narrower than it should have been, so I got a Dayco kit on ebay with idler and tensioner rollers.

On inspection the cam sprocket had started to break up with the side to side movement of the belt caused by the tensioner moving. I took the cover off, undid the crank bolt (Top trick. put a socket on a long bar, wedged it to the ground and then turned the engine on the starter, this loosened the bolt!) and released the tension on the tensioner.

It then looked like the oil was leaking from the tensioner!!! But how could that be?? Well, after undoing the two nuts that hold the tensioner and removing it there is a plate that fits between the tensioner and the block and what is behind the plate? A hole!! and thats the source of the oil leak. A bit of a clean and a coat of "indian head" gasket cement and thats the job done.

Reassembled everything with new rollers, belt and cam pulley. Now no worries about the belt and no more oil leak. The hole is circled in the pic.

Keep well,
Torq

Blimey -- well done on sorting that. Makes you want to drive a truck through the garage that fitted the belt...

MarkEJ said:

Blimey -- well done on sorting that. Makes you want to drive a truck through the garage that fitted the belt...

Click to expand...

Think that's bad, you should have seen what a pair of polish lads did to the gearbox, a 2nd gear synchro problem became a new 5th gear, a search for missing components and a 4 month wait for a production run of a €2 part.
Keep well
Torq