Mozella
New member
My Grande Punto Sport (Sporting in the UK?) was overdue for a timing belt change both on age and mileage. The engine is a 1.4L 16 valve, twin cam, petrol engine with variable valve timing; engine code 199A6000.
The local repair shops here in Italy charge quite a bit for this job but what concerned me most was my lack of confidence that they would do it correctly. For example, nobody I talked to could show me that they had the proper tools for the job, yet they all assured me they could change the belt. So I decided to do the job myself.
Because there aren’t a lot of “how to” posts about my particular engine, I though a few comments might help Fiat owners decide if they should also do the job themselves or let a shop do the work. This isn’t a how-to by any means, but I hope it may prove useful and give folks some idea of what to expect, especially since this particular engine (and the belt change procedure) is a little bit different from similar engines.
In addition to the ordinary tools most serious Fiat home mechanics own, you’ll want a pair of stands and a floor jack.
The Sealey locking and timing tool kit is very nice and all the components are top quality. It includes two threaded guides and the associated indicator rods which screw into the spark plug holes, two cam lock pins, a crank shaft end drive pulley lock, a tensioner adjusting tool, and a driven pulley (variator) lock. Unfortunately, the cost of this kit makes one think twice about the option of making the tools yourself or simply farming the job out to your favorite repair shop. However, you won’t be disappointed with the quality of the Sealey kit. It's genuine pro quality stuff. Frankly I wish somebody sold a cheap Chinese tool kit at 1/3 the price.
The toothed belt on this twin cam engine turns a variator (which alters the cam timing) via a single driven pulley. The variator, which is controlled by the ECU and operated by oil pressure, drives the exhaust cam directly. The intake cam is driven by a chain on the opposite end of the engine connecting it to the exhaust cam. There is no need to open this part. All your work will be at the belt end of the engine and if the exhaust cam is in time, the intake cam will be in time also.
I purchased a Gates belt kit on EBay which included both a new tensioner and a new water pump. Both the Gates kit and the Sealey tool kit have detailed instructions about how to change the belt, but the E-learn Fiat shop manual on CD also gives useful information about the necessary steps before and after the belt change itself as well as torque values, etc. Even if you do this kind of work for a living I recommend that you obtain a copy of this Elearn shop manual or something similar. I bought mine on-line.
The procedure in the Elearn manual is loaded with links and references which involves quite a bit of jumping around to tease out all the required information. At one point it says to disconnect a good part of the fuel system, but this isn’t necessary. Perhaps that’s an error, or perhaps it’s part of a procedure which is more involved than a belt change.
The night before, I went through the procedure on the Elearn CD and wrote down every major step along with a few warnings and cautions as well as the appropriate torque values. That gave me a good preview of the process and produced a logical check list which put everything in order and in one place so that I didn’t have to refer to the laptop with greasy fingers dripping with anti-freeze.
I was happy to discover that the cam locking notch was easy to see using a mirror and flashlight. It was also very obvious. There is no need to mark anything or concern yourself with timing marks if you’re using the proper tools. As you slowly rotate the engine the indexing bump (not the machined notch) on the drive pulley will be opposite the tach sensor as the two indicating rods come into alignment indicating that all the pistons are exactly half way down in the bore (not TDC). For reasons I don’t understand, the procedure for my engine says to put the indicators in cylinders 3 and 4 while other nearly identical engines use cylinders 1 and 2. Go figure. I can’t imagine it would make any difference. By the way, removing all the spark plugs is a good idea so that the engine is easier to turn by hand. Anyway, if the position is correct you will see that the cam lock notch is visible through the access port. Therefore, it’s time to lock the cam with the special tool. If you can’t see the locking notch, rotate the crankshaft 360 degrees and then lock the cam. This is very obvious when you see it in person. Expect to wiggle the crankshaft a few degrees each way before you can install the tight fitting cam locking pin; there is no slack or wiggle room here.
I’m glad I had a water pump on hand. The old one showed a little bit of rusty grunge escaping from the weep hole, so I imagine it wasn’t going to last until the next belt change. Seems stupid not to change it every time you change the belt. Fiat used a really tough silicone sealant on the water pump and it took me a long time to clean it all off the engine.
The old belt actually looked pretty good after 6 years with only a shiny surface on the smooth side to indicate it wasn’t new. There were no cracks or evidence of worn teeth, but the disaster associated with a broken belt is just too great for me to feel comfortable pushing the limits any further than I did. In contrast, the aux drive belt I changed last year was horrible looking and full of cracks.
When you remove the variator plug to access the bolt inside be prepared to catch a tablespoon of oil. When you loosen the pulley bolt (and remove the pulley locking tool), the pulley will now rotate freely but the cam locking pin keeps the cam in time.
The only caution when installing the belt is to be sure the crankshaft doesn’t rotate, but this is easy to monitor with the piston indicating rods in place. Since the driven pulley is free to rotate, there is no reason to mark the new belt, or count teeth or anything like that. Remember, the cam itself is locked and you’re making sure the crankshaft doesn’t move; therefore, it’s nearly impossible to mis-time this engine if you use the correct tools and if you follow the instructions. On the other hand, it is plenty easy to screw this up by not using either the proper tools or the correct procedure (or both). The result might be an engine slightly out of time or one far enough out of time to bend the valves. Neither result is desirable, so don’t do something silly like try to do this job with nothing but a Tippex paint pen and some luck.
After the new belt is in place, you’ll have to rotate the engine through two revolutions several times to complete (and double check) the procedure and you’ll be installing and removing various locking tools along the way. Don’t forget to remove all the locking devices before you turn the engine and, of course, remove them when you’re all finished. Unless you rotate the engine very slowly, the compression will spit out the piston indicating rods and send them flying. So it’s a good idea to remove the pins when rotating the engine by hand. Leave the guides in place.
Refitting the aux drive belt is a little tricky by yourself because the lower pulley is flanged. So after wrestling with it for a few minutes I called my wife and asked her to slip the belt over the upper un-flanged pulley while I pulled back the spring loaded tensioner with a long wrench from below; …… easy.
Make sure you properly fill and bleed the cooling system. Take a moment to think about anything you might have forgotten. Then start the engine and bask in the warm fuzzy feeling of a job well done.
The local repair shops here in Italy charge quite a bit for this job but what concerned me most was my lack of confidence that they would do it correctly. For example, nobody I talked to could show me that they had the proper tools for the job, yet they all assured me they could change the belt. So I decided to do the job myself.
Because there aren’t a lot of “how to” posts about my particular engine, I though a few comments might help Fiat owners decide if they should also do the job themselves or let a shop do the work. This isn’t a how-to by any means, but I hope it may prove useful and give folks some idea of what to expect, especially since this particular engine (and the belt change procedure) is a little bit different from similar engines.
In addition to the ordinary tools most serious Fiat home mechanics own, you’ll want a pair of stands and a floor jack.
The Sealey locking and timing tool kit is very nice and all the components are top quality. It includes two threaded guides and the associated indicator rods which screw into the spark plug holes, two cam lock pins, a crank shaft end drive pulley lock, a tensioner adjusting tool, and a driven pulley (variator) lock. Unfortunately, the cost of this kit makes one think twice about the option of making the tools yourself or simply farming the job out to your favorite repair shop. However, you won’t be disappointed with the quality of the Sealey kit. It's genuine pro quality stuff. Frankly I wish somebody sold a cheap Chinese tool kit at 1/3 the price.
The toothed belt on this twin cam engine turns a variator (which alters the cam timing) via a single driven pulley. The variator, which is controlled by the ECU and operated by oil pressure, drives the exhaust cam directly. The intake cam is driven by a chain on the opposite end of the engine connecting it to the exhaust cam. There is no need to open this part. All your work will be at the belt end of the engine and if the exhaust cam is in time, the intake cam will be in time also.
I purchased a Gates belt kit on EBay which included both a new tensioner and a new water pump. Both the Gates kit and the Sealey tool kit have detailed instructions about how to change the belt, but the E-learn Fiat shop manual on CD also gives useful information about the necessary steps before and after the belt change itself as well as torque values, etc. Even if you do this kind of work for a living I recommend that you obtain a copy of this Elearn shop manual or something similar. I bought mine on-line.
The procedure in the Elearn manual is loaded with links and references which involves quite a bit of jumping around to tease out all the required information. At one point it says to disconnect a good part of the fuel system, but this isn’t necessary. Perhaps that’s an error, or perhaps it’s part of a procedure which is more involved than a belt change.
The night before, I went through the procedure on the Elearn CD and wrote down every major step along with a few warnings and cautions as well as the appropriate torque values. That gave me a good preview of the process and produced a logical check list which put everything in order and in one place so that I didn’t have to refer to the laptop with greasy fingers dripping with anti-freeze.
I was happy to discover that the cam locking notch was easy to see using a mirror and flashlight. It was also very obvious. There is no need to mark anything or concern yourself with timing marks if you’re using the proper tools. As you slowly rotate the engine the indexing bump (not the machined notch) on the drive pulley will be opposite the tach sensor as the two indicating rods come into alignment indicating that all the pistons are exactly half way down in the bore (not TDC). For reasons I don’t understand, the procedure for my engine says to put the indicators in cylinders 3 and 4 while other nearly identical engines use cylinders 1 and 2. Go figure. I can’t imagine it would make any difference. By the way, removing all the spark plugs is a good idea so that the engine is easier to turn by hand. Anyway, if the position is correct you will see that the cam lock notch is visible through the access port. Therefore, it’s time to lock the cam with the special tool. If you can’t see the locking notch, rotate the crankshaft 360 degrees and then lock the cam. This is very obvious when you see it in person. Expect to wiggle the crankshaft a few degrees each way before you can install the tight fitting cam locking pin; there is no slack or wiggle room here.
I’m glad I had a water pump on hand. The old one showed a little bit of rusty grunge escaping from the weep hole, so I imagine it wasn’t going to last until the next belt change. Seems stupid not to change it every time you change the belt. Fiat used a really tough silicone sealant on the water pump and it took me a long time to clean it all off the engine.
The old belt actually looked pretty good after 6 years with only a shiny surface on the smooth side to indicate it wasn’t new. There were no cracks or evidence of worn teeth, but the disaster associated with a broken belt is just too great for me to feel comfortable pushing the limits any further than I did. In contrast, the aux drive belt I changed last year was horrible looking and full of cracks.
When you remove the variator plug to access the bolt inside be prepared to catch a tablespoon of oil. When you loosen the pulley bolt (and remove the pulley locking tool), the pulley will now rotate freely but the cam locking pin keeps the cam in time.
The only caution when installing the belt is to be sure the crankshaft doesn’t rotate, but this is easy to monitor with the piston indicating rods in place. Since the driven pulley is free to rotate, there is no reason to mark the new belt, or count teeth or anything like that. Remember, the cam itself is locked and you’re making sure the crankshaft doesn’t move; therefore, it’s nearly impossible to mis-time this engine if you use the correct tools and if you follow the instructions. On the other hand, it is plenty easy to screw this up by not using either the proper tools or the correct procedure (or both). The result might be an engine slightly out of time or one far enough out of time to bend the valves. Neither result is desirable, so don’t do something silly like try to do this job with nothing but a Tippex paint pen and some luck.
After the new belt is in place, you’ll have to rotate the engine through two revolutions several times to complete (and double check) the procedure and you’ll be installing and removing various locking tools along the way. Don’t forget to remove all the locking devices before you turn the engine and, of course, remove them when you’re all finished. Unless you rotate the engine very slowly, the compression will spit out the piston indicating rods and send them flying. So it’s a good idea to remove the pins when rotating the engine by hand. Leave the guides in place.
Refitting the aux drive belt is a little tricky by yourself because the lower pulley is flanged. So after wrestling with it for a few minutes I called my wife and asked her to slip the belt over the upper un-flanged pulley while I pulled back the spring loaded tensioner with a long wrench from below; …… easy.
Make sure you properly fill and bleed the cooling system. Take a moment to think about anything you might have forgotten. Then start the engine and bask in the warm fuzzy feeling of a job well done.
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