Marea Photo how-to: Marea 20v cam belt change

Right, now the new belt is on you need to tension it. I did this from below with two spanners – a 24mm combo for leverage, and the 13mm for tightening up.


In this pic, looking up you’re pulling the big spanner to the right to take up the tension, levering against the metal roller on the left of the pic. The smaller one is the 13mm one to tighten the tensioner bolt. Once you have this done, check that all the timing marks still line up – 2 top and one bottom. If not, belt off, realign and try again. If it’s just one notch off, you’re still stuffed so make sure it’s right.

Now it’s time to turn the engine over with a spanner / socket. Use a 19mm on the big centre bolt on the crank pulley. See that everything moves when it should, if the belt wasn’t seated right it’ll slip and become loose – if it slips, realign all the pulleys and start again.

Assuming it didn’t slip, turn the crank pulley two full turns clockwise and realign the marks. See that everything still lines up, if it does all well and good. If not, you know the score. Check the tension by just turning the crank pulley until it takes up the slack from the right hand side (front of the car) then feel how slack the section of belt on the left hand side of the bottom crank pulley is. There should be a little movement available on the belt from left to right, if not it’s too tight. You ideally want around ¼” max movement on this short stretch, pull quite hard to make sure all the slack is where you’re trying to feel the movement - the play should easily be felt. If the belt is too tight or too slack, loosen the pulley bolt and retension – make sure the marks are lined up first though, in case anything goes wrong.

Bung the belt covers back on ands reattach the crank pulley – making sure the notch in the pulley on the engine lines up with the hole in the pulley in your hand.